


Not one of you

by KoranLorien



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, HTTYD - Freeform, HTTYD AU, cool honorary older brother hiccup, no beta we die like memes, ok but what if Hiccup did not finish dragon training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:20:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 25,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25453801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoranLorien/pseuds/KoranLorien
Summary: So what if Hiccup never finished dragon training, no final exam, no dishonor, just a secret dragon buddy.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & OC, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Stoick the Vast, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 57
Kudos: 157





	1. Chapter 1

Hiccup woke up tasting damp, mossy earth. Where was he? Why was he on the floor? 

The Dragon! Oh Gods! THE DRAGON!! 

What was he thinking? Cutting a gods-damned Night Fury loose. How was he even alive?!? Wait, how was he alive? The Night Fury should definitely have killed him. Why didn't it? Well it's not like it matters now. He was never gonna get a chance like that again. His fathers words from earlier rang through his head "You are many things, but a dragon killer is not one of them". Well guess he'd been right. Again. 

Hiccup stood up finally recovering from his shock enough to not immediately fall over again. 

"Guess that settles that" he said to no one in particular. "I really can't kill dragons."

He lowered his head starting the long trek home. How was he gonna break this to his father. 

_much latter_

Stoick sat by the fireplace in his house, waiting. He loved Hiccup - really he did - but by Thor Almighty was the kid a problem around the village, and Gobber was right, maybe putting him in dragon training might give him enough skills to deal with the raids just enough that he was at the very least not get in everyone else's way. Maybe, just maybe Hiccup might be good at it. Either way Hiccup was starting tomorrow, now just to break the news. 

The door creaked. 

"Dad, uh ... I have to talk to you, Dad."

That's weird Hiccup almost never initiated conversation. 

"I need to speak with you too, son."

"I cant kill dragons"/"It's time you learn to fight dragons"

"What?"/"What?"

"Uh you go first." Hiccup rarely chose to speak with Stoick. He should give him this chance.

"Ok, here goes nothing. Dad, you were right I can't kill dragons. Besides we have a surplus of dragon-killing vikings, but do we have enough bread-making vikings or small-home-repair vikings-" 

"Wait what?" Stoick was shocked granted he didn't really 'get' his son but this was such a big change from what he was saying just hours earlier. "What happened to not being able to stop yourself from killing a dragon"

"I thought about it, took a bit of a walk, and your right I am not a dragon killer."

"Well this is unexpected, but I've already signed you on for dragon training you start in the morning" this time it was Hiccup's turn to look shocked. 

"Gobber and I had a bit of a chat, he recons it'll be useful."

"Well to reiterate I can't kill dragons"

"Maybe you will kill dragons"

"I'm really extra sure I won't"

"Ok you know what how about you just give it a shot how bad could it be"

"I could die!"

"Deal"

"This conversation is starting to feel a bit one sided"

"Deal"

*sigh* "Deal"

"Good. Train Hard. I'll be back, probably"

"And, I'll be here, maybe"

Stoick turned back to look at his son "Listen, at least give it one lesson if you still feel the same, talk to Gobber."

"Ok, deal."

With that Stoick left.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've also always found it weird that there is like less than 10 teens on the whole Berk. So there are just more of them here in the back ground.

**WELCOME TO DRAGON TRAINING!!!**

_Just one lesson Hiccup come on you can do that much right_. Who was he of course he couldn't. He was the worse viking Berk had ever seen. He'd be luck to get out of this alive. 

At least Gobber was supportive, the other teens defiantly were not. 

_Ok lets get this over with_

**_several mistakes and one almost dead Hiccup later_ **

_well I don't see how that could have gone worse_

At the very least he was still alive, always a plus, but that did raise the question; if a dragon always went for the kill "why didn't you?" he asked the bolas on the ground, surely the Night Fury had a good shot. Was it just because he freed it? Was the Night Fury just different? Why? Well only one way to really find out. Hey maybe he'll almost die a third time, wouldn't that be fun. 

**_much later_ **

Gobber had not seen a crop of trainees quite so bad in a while, but hey he'd seen much worse and he'd managed to pull out a win, and its not like his 'learn on the job' method made it easy, so there was still hope. 

Of the around twenty students he had trained this week (all had the same through a Gronkle at them and see what happens course) the one class of six really stood out, not all of them for the right reasons; Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs all had potential they would eventually do well once they found their footing, that just left Astrid and Hiccup. Astrid, now there was someone with potential, she took to the ring like a fish to water, she defiantly had his money for best of the lot. Hiccup however was not that, Stoick had come to him late last night to tell him that Hiccup had for some reason done a full 180 and didn't want to join the training. He'd been asked to see if Hiccup had any chance of success in the ring, and after today he had to say chances were low. Speaking of the devils five of the six entered the hall for the evening debrief. 

Well better get started. 

"Alright where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber asked this way they should get a good idea of what to do right. 

"I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble" She didn't even miss a beat. She was humble too, oh this was gonna make this group easy. 

"Yeah, we noticed"

"No, no, you were great. That was so Astrid" 

Ok Gobber was gonna have to work on the others ego's.

"She's right, you have to be tough on yourself." Ah there's the last of the six, now to teach the other half of the lesson, "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

"Uh, he showed up" Not his choice

"He didn't get eaten" Just plain rude

"He's never where he should be"

" _Thank you_ Astrid, you need to live and breath this stuff, the dragon manual: everything we know about every dragon we know of." Gobber heard the storm outside grow in intensity. "No attacks tonight. Study up"

With that he left them to it. Hoping they at least look at the pictures. He left for the forge. He'd talk to Hiccup tomorrow. for now they all needed some rest. 

Gobber did not expect Hiccup to come to him near the dead of night. 

"Eh lad what do ya need"

"You need to take me out of dragon training"

Stoick was right the lad defiantly did not want to be in the class any more. 

"Eh come on it's not that bad"

"I almost died today Gobber"

"But ye didn't"

"Only because you were there"

"True but you'll find yer legs eventually"

"Pretty sure I'll die before that happens"

"You don't know that"

"I'd rather not risk it"

"So what will ye do if a dragon attacks you during a raid"

"Run, I mean I've gotten pretty good at it these last couple years"

"Ok, fair enough, How bout this I'll take you out of the ring-"

"Thank you, you're the best, I promis-"

"But you still need to watch all the training, maybe you'll pick up something useful"

"That's fair."

"See you tomorrow"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about all the skipping around,   
> I don't just want to straight up just write word for word what happens in the movie I want to focus more on where its different. and I have a pretty clear idea of where I need to get the story.


	3. Chapter 3

Astrid was out of breath. Nothing new it was just annoying. She'd been running around the arena for at least half an hour. This was taking longer than it should of, grated she was not at the top of her game today, none of them really were, Hiccup being taken out of training had been a bit of a shock, even to Snotlout, not that it made him any less insufferable. But the thought that if they didn't perform they'd be removed from training, that they would not have a coming of age ceremony, did not sit well. She couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for him. 

"-ight Fury pamphlet or something-"

But looking up at him it seemed like some sort of weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he had this vaguely distant look in his eyes, like his mind was running at a hundred miles an hour. 

"Focus Hiccup, you're not up here for vacation."

"Yeah, the idiot would probably mess that up too!"

Gods Snotlout was annoying, Hel, if he wasn't careful he'd be up there next. 

They kept running around like headless chickens for a good while. Eventually she got into a spot where she could feasibly get a good hit in, she stepped back. Lined up the shot, and- "Watch out, babe. I'll take care of this." that useless asshat knocked her out of the way called her **babe** and then missed. At least Hiccup had only accidented his way into trouble, not actively caused it. 

"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid." not only was he useless he was also arrogant. She proceeded to blatantly ignore him as he kept making excuses as she ran for all she was worth down the maze, sliding to the left as Nadder barreled behind her, barely missing her skirt. Next thing she knew she was running along the top of the course as it fell apart around her and the Nadder. She managed to jump off and landed in a clumsy roll, just barely managing to not loose her balance, thank the Gods no one was there. Readying her axe, she saw it - her opening, she lunged forward and hit the Nadder square on the jaw, stunning it long enough to get it back in the cage. 

"Well done, Astrid" the voice echoed from above. She looked up to see Gobber and Hiccup looking at her. As she looked at them she locked eyes with Hiccup, she was not ready for the look in his eyes a weird mixture between genuinely impressed and ... was that longing. She broke eye contact almost immediately. What was that? Why did she feel so weird all of a sudden? It was no secret that Hiccup probably had a crush on her, but at this point that was hardly surprising most of the guys her age did, and if she didn't know any better some of the girls too, but she defiantly did not have those feelings. She was a warrior, she didn't have time for such things, besides even if she did it wouldn't be a scrawny, barely grown boy, right?

**_later_ **

She'd decided she was gonna convince Gobber to let Hiccup join back up. If Snotlout could stay surely Hiccup wasn't that bad, sure he'd made some mistakes on day one but all of them had, it wasn't fair, and if Astrid hated anything it was unfairness. 

"What do you mean?!"

"I'd love to let Hiccup join again, but he's the one who asked to leave, so unless you can convince him there's nothing I can do."

"Then what was all that about us getting pulled out of training if we're not up to scratch?"

"Did you see Snotlout's face?"

Ok she had to give him that one, the look on Snotlout's face was priceless. But that still did not explain why Hiccup opted out of training, he never shut up about how he was gonna kill a dragon one day, what changed? She needed answers. 

"Good luck!" Gobber called after her. 

**_one very frustrating afternoon later, I mean how hard is it to find one scrawny viking_ **

"Ahha! There you are! I've been looking for you since dragon training, where were you?" She'd finally tracked him down after several hours of looking. 

"Ahh! Oh, hi Astrid, hi Astrid ... uh n-nothing just took-k a walk in the woods. Uh, why?" 

"Why'd you drop out of dragon training"

"Oh." did he look disappointed. "Yeah, just realized my dad was right I'm not made to kill dragons."

"You do realize our parents war is about to become ours, you cant just sit on the sidelines and do nothing."

"Hey! I'm just following your advice 'He's never where he should be' so hey might as well not be in the way, now I'm sure your axe must be blunted from today so just let me know when you need _me_ to sharpen it!" his sudden outburst surprised her long enough for him to dip out of earshot. Something was definitely off with Hiccup. She was gonna find out what. But for now he had a point Gobber was getting old and couldn't work as much as he used to, and her axe did need to be sharpened. She could figure it out later. 

**_that evening_ **

"I saw the look on his face I was delicious ... " Gobber was telling one of his long winded stories Astrid wasn't really paying attention. If she was being honest she was paying more attention to Hiccup. His outburst had really caught her by surprise. Was he really that bitter. She glanced back at him, he seemed to be paying even less attention than she was. His eyes where distant and sad, almost melancholy. 

"... I'll avenge your beautiful hand your and beautiful foot ..." Had they been too harsh on him, stupid question, of course Snotlout and them had been, anyone could tell you that, but should the someone have stepped up? Probably. Well didn't matter whats done is done. 

"... If it cant fly, it cant get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Hiccup's expression changed with those words, flashing through several emotions, was that shock, no more like regret. Then his expression grew even more distant and Astrid could almost hear his mind working. Whatever there was to not like about Hiccup - his physique (or lack there of), his voice, or his need to ruin everything he touched - Astrid had to admit that she always did like the way his mind worked. The village may shun most of his creations but they always interested her, even if she'd never admit it. 

" ... Your mom let you get a tattoo! ..." Astrid looked up again, suddenly Hiccup was gone, practically rushing down the tower. She got up to go see what the sudden rush was all about. What were they talking about? Oh yeah who was gonna come first in training. Oh, yeah Hiccup could not ever come first. Probably why he left, must of had mixed feelings about the topic, and given his bitterness earlier she doubted he'd want to see her of all people now. So, she turned around to stop Tuffnut and Snotlout from stroking their own egos too much.

Hiccup was a mystery for another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm beginning to like writing this all with very little Hiccup perspective. So that might or might not be a trend we'll see


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was difficult  
> ngl

The tail fin had worked, Toothless might be able to fly again! Granted he still needed to make countless improvements, but it was a good start. 

"... the Zippleback is extra tricky ..." Gobbers loud voice snapped Hiccup back to reality as he tried to focus back on the others' training. They were split into pairs with Gobber partnering with Fishlegs to make up for the odd number of students. The lesson went about as well as he thought it would, Fishlegs and Tuffnut had almost died, fortunately Gobber was handy and knew what he was doing. They were gonna redo this whole exercise again till they got it right. Before then however Hiccup had to try something out. _Did all dragons hate eels or was that just Toothless?_. How to try it out though? He could give one of them the eel and see what happened? No, there was no way they would just do what he asked. He'd have to sneak it in. But how? The buckets! Yes, that could work. Now just to figure out whose bucket to put it in. Fishlegs? No that was not likely to go well, he probably shouldn't pick either of the kids who almost died. He only had one eel so he didn't want to waste it. Snotlout? No, he had thrown his bucket at the first thing to move. That left Astrid and Ruffnut. Ruffnut had thrown her bucket at her brother after he'd been an ass, something very likely to happen again. That just left Astrid, maybe he should just try it with another class. No, no, that would mean another day of wondering, he'd probably be tempted to make some sort of stupid decision like trying to find a wild dragon. He needed to do this now. Astrid it was. 

He walked down to the resting teens offering to go refill the buckets.

Astrid was frustrated. These idiots would die the second they saw real combat. They didn't listen, they bickered, they were arrogant. The only one who was even remotely trying to be helpful was Hiccup and he was not even in training anymore. Why? As far as she could tell they had belittled him for being different. Another reason to be frustrated. She grabbed her bucket and lined up next to the others ready to try again.

The cage door burst open again. They split into pairs again, different this time. She and Fishlegs wandered around. It wasn't long till she heard the twins screaming as they ran to safety. Idiots. Then she saw it, the head of the Zippleback, emerging from the smoke. She readied her bucket. Fishlegs was faster though. He emptied his bucket on the head, the wrong head she realized, as it gurgled gas out. If she didn't know any better she'd say it was mocking Fishlegs. The rest of the dragon soon made itself known emerging from the smoke trying to intimate her. She tossed the water at the other head, it fell short landing on its body instead. The dragon wore an almost smug expression. The bastard. It then looked down at its body almost as if to say "Look how little that did"

Suddenly its entire body contorted. It shrieked and ran frantically around the arena, shaking itself and trying desperately to get 'something' off its body. Nobody expected the sudden chaos. She looked at Fishlegs for an explanation, the guy was like a dragon encyclopedia he might have an idea, but he looked just as confused as she felt. She scanned the faces of everyone in the arena, the twins looked at the panicking dragon in awe, Snotlout looked like he was about to shit himself, and Gobber was trying his best to wrangle the thing back into its cage, when he eventually managed she heard three more explosions before it finally seemed to calm down. What happened? She then looked up at Hiccup, maybe he had had a better view of the events and saw what happened, but his expression caught her off guard. 

When they were younger, before the bullying really started Hiccup used to do 'experiments' his curiosity was endless. The expression he wore now looked like it had whenever the experiment had been a tiny bit more effective than he had expected, a mix of joy and surprise, only this time it seemed tinged ever so slightly with guilt. That expression told her everything, not only did he know why the Zippleback became panicked, he'd caused it. 

After everyone's shock died down a little Gobber dismissed them for the day. And like last time Hiccup seemed to disappear, not that anyone but her seemed to care. When she did eventually corner him and questioned him, he flat out denied everything, claiming to be just as surprised as everyone else. Bullshit, but with no evidence she couldn't pursue it. 

But it didn't stop with dragons suddenly going crazy. Other small things kept happening; a Gronkle mesmerized with her shield after smelling it, dragons passed out in their cages before training, the Terrible Terror running around after lights that nobody seemed to know where they came from. People started to flock towards the arena to watch her train. That's the other thing it almost never happened to the other students, always her. People started spreading a rumors that she was 'blessed by the Gods' 'destined to free Berk from the dragons' but that's the worst part of it **none of it was her** somehow Hiccup was doing it all. She didn't know how, she didn't know why. Maybe Loki took pity on him? She did see him seemingly disappear into thin air that one time. It didn't matter. It was frustrating. And the worst part was that he seemed to be having the time of his life. With everyone's focus on how outstanding she was nobody seemed to notice the scrawny kid anymore, not that it really stopped the bullying. But more than that he now had a strange aura to him, almost a carefree confidence, like he had finally solved some great mystery or finally found some kind of inner peace. He completely stopped trying to prove himself to the village, most days he barely stayed in the village long enough to eat. (not that she was keeping an eye on him or anything)

In any event their class had finally progressed enough to properly help with the raids. She hoped it wasn't all a fluke and that they were ready. Well they'd likely find out tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious the second last paragraph is referencing the events of the training montage  
> hiccup laced astrids shield with dragon nip, and snuck into the dragon cages to try out the scratch thing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok now we cooking finnally getting to Kara

Fortunately for Kara there hadn't been any big raids since her dad had left with Stoick. She hated the raids, she hated how scared she felt, she hated the feeling of powerlessness. It was all very overwhelming. But word had reached the village that another big raid was incoming. The dragons had been resting out in the sea stacks far too long for there to not be a massive raid tonight. And her dad wasn't here to calm her down tonight. 

She was scared. 

A loud, deep roar thundered across the village. It had started. 

She spent most of the night curled up clutching her toy sheep, trying really hard to be brave and not cry. She was failing. Her sobs were interrupted by a loud crash. A dragon. A mass of fire, muscle and sharp edges. it fell through her roof. Her instincts took over. She ran screaming. Anywhere but here, she needed to be anywhere but right here. As she ran she noticed the sound of carnage did not get quieter, she risked a glance backwards. It was still there seemingly attracted to her screams. She didn't remember much after that, the next thing she knew she was still running, only now the village was growing smaller in the distance, that could not be good, help was in the village but, the monster was still chasing her. 

She was gonna die. 

There was no one here to save her. Her tears covered her face. She could barely see in front of her. Then the inevitable happened: she tripped. 

What happened next buried itself deep in her psyche; suddenly there was someone between her and her doom. His brown hair swayed in the evening breeze, his frail frame barely hid the monster from her view, but what drew her in most was his eyes. They were so calm, they promised peace, looking into them she felt the fear leave her body. "Everything is gonna be alright." she believed him, she believed those eyes. Those eyes could not lie. He turned around and faced the beast head on. Not a single muscle tensed he was perfectly calm, like the mountain of fire and death barreling towards them was no more than a stray kitten. The moment the dragon looked at him it transformed, no longer was there a vicious man-eating monster in front of her, but rather a soft, curious animal. As if by willing it he had fundamentally changed the beast. But it did not surprise her, surely it had seen the same eyes she had. 

The boy reached out his hand and rested it on the head of the animal. She then saw the timber that impaled the creature's side. That was what made so wild, the pain and confusion. The boy then with practiced grace pulled out the wooden steak. The dragon immediately roared and flew away. 

"Come now let's get you home"

She then recognized the boy. Hiccup. He was five years older than her, and everyone seemed to despise him. But he just did the impossible. He not only faced down death head on, but tamed it, he made it his. She decided then that even if the whole village hated him, he would still be her hero. He saved her when no one else could. 

_**one stressful night later**_

So they didn't all die. That was a plus in Gobbers books. Even Hiccup didn't stuff anything up this time, he'd even only disappeared once. And from the looks of things had saved a young girl's life. Although Hiccup insists that she's exaggerating what happened, there was promise there. The others had also done well, most had at the very least chased off several dragons, Astrid even almost killed a Nadder. She was quickly shaping up to be the best viking Berk had ever seen, maybe even better than Stoick given a couple years. All things considered; a successful raid. At the very least he could tell Stoick that Hiccup would be slightly less of an issue. 

Astrid was proud. Nothing weird had happened on the raid, which was definitely a point in favor of Hiccup being behind all the weirdness and she had proven her mettle even without "the Gods' blessing" so she was a true warrior who earned that herself, no tricks. But then she heard of the little girl that since the raid refused to leave Hiccup alone, more importantly she heard why. The official telling of events (what Hiccup and Gobber tell people) was that he had seen the girls house destroyed and run after her to help her get away, apparently all his years of running away from the freak dragon accidents he caused had given him quite the skill set. But there was a second telling of the events, one that interested her a lot more. The girl said that he had the power to control dragons with his willpower, a wild tale from the overactive imagination of a terrified child, right? But Astrid could not help but feel that buried halfway between the two was the truth. If Hiccup could control dragons then that would explain the Zippleback incident. But even if it did explain a lot, it was just as reasonable as her simply being favored by the Gods. She needed more proof. 

Hiccup was at his wits end. Yes it was nice to finally have someone around who looked up to him, but Gods was she clingy. He hadn't been able to see Toothless or improve the saddle in days. He'd finally managed to give her the slip long enough to apologize to Toothless. After his initial annoyance the bastard wouldn't stop mocking him about it. He didn't need to understand dragons to know that the dragon constantly following him around with his tail over his head (to look like the girls hair) was the dragon's way of mocking him. The only person who didn't tease him to some degree about his new shadow was Astrid, but he was fairly sure she didn't really care either way. 

_**one unsuccessful trip to the nest later**_

Stoick was definitely frustrated. They had barely even made it halfway as far as some of their other trips. The one silver lining was that the casualties had been mercifully low, but the injuries had not. Most of the vikings were going to need at least three weeks of recovery before they would be in fighting condition again. 

"I trust you found the nest at least?" Yeah rub it in why don't you. 

"Not even close"

"Oh, excellent"

"I hope you had a little more success than me"

"Well if by success you mean your parenting troubles are over with, no, I'm afraid they've doubled"

"What does that mean?" 

"You'll find out soon enough"

"Just tell me if Hiccup burned down the village now."

"No, no. Hiccup's actually doing great these days, seems to have mellowed out a bit if ye ask me. You were definitely right about him having done a one eighty about dragon killing"

"I take it he's not still in training."

"No, but I've at least got him watching every lesson. Some of it seems to have stuck, he was quite useful in the last raid."

"So it sounds like my parenting troubles are doing just fine so what are you talking about?"

To that Gobber just laughed. 

"Hope you get along with Stoick eh?" the use of his name alerted Stoick. He looked around trying to find the source of it. A small crowd had gathered around one of the men from the ship. Arne if he wasn't wrong. Why were they talking about him? Moreover why did they all seem to be teasing him. Stoick tried to wrack his memory to see if he could make the connection himself. Arne wasn't anything too special, a sheep herder from the outskirts of the village, wife killed during a raid several years back, and a daughter of about ten years. Try as he might he could not make the connection. Oh well If it was important he'd find out soon enough. What he did not like was that mischievous look in Gobber's eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

After his conversation with Gobber Stoick did not know what he was expecting, probably something disastrous if he was being honest. He was not however expecting an incredibly pissed off ten year old at his doorstep. 

"Uh, can I help you?"

"Do you know where Hiccup is?"

"Uhhh... No."

"Then no, you can't help me."

What was going on. This was not normal. 

"Let's try this again. Why are you here? Last I remember you don't live here."

"Waiting for Hiccup, one moment he was just behind me the next he's vanished. What are you doing here anyway?" 

Stoick let out a loud bellied laugh. The sass on this one! Stoick had to say if nothing else she certainly was entertaining. 

"I live here." He could see the gears turning in her little head

"You're the chief!"

"The one and only."

"Oh, yeah that makes sense." she paused "Wait, that means dad's home!"

"Probably, why don't I take you home then you can tell me why you've taken such an interest in my son." Stoick definitely needed some sort of explanation and given the nature of the vikings the only solid answer he was gonna get was from this little lass. Besides, she was fun to talk to. He offered to let her ride his shoulders. She reminded him ever so slightly of Hiccup in his younger years. 

**_one revealing conversation later_ **

That explained some things, granted the girl, Kara, had a very active imagination. It was clear that Hiccup had saved her from what sounded like a Monstrous Nightmare. Stoick was proud. His son may never kill dragons but even so he was still willing to help others, he may still make a good chief. Some of Gobbers vagueness started to make a little sense. Hiccup may be better off and less hands on now, but given Kara's attachment to the boy it was not unlikely that he'd gotten another honorary member of the family. It did seem like Hiccup would need a little bit more convincing but Kara was incredibly charming and had already wormed her way into Stoick's heart, Hiccup didn't stand a chance. That just left one person to talk to, Arne. The girl's father. It would explain the small crowd around him when they returned. He was a good man, maybe Stoick should invite him over for drinks some time. After dropping Kara off and exchanging pleasantries with Arne. Stoick returned home, he needed to speak with Hiccup, but if someone as persistent as Kara couldn't find him Stoick was not going to find him. 

**_After Hiccup's incredibly moving flight_ **

It was late when Hiccup finally returned. Stoick wasn't too worried, Hiccup had probably just stopped by the forge to run some errands for Gobber. 

"It's late" judging by the way Hiccup jumped he probably hadn't expected Stoick. 

"Dad! You're back!" 

"I've been waiting for you."

"You have?"

"You've been keeping secrets"

"I-I h-have?"

"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?"

"I ... I ... I don't know what you're ... "

"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it."

"Oh?"

"So, let's talk about that dragon."

"Oh, gods. Dad, I'm so sorry. I ... I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how to ... uh" at this point Stoick couldn't keep up the charade and started laughing heartily. 

"You're not upset." 

"What?! No, I can't blame you for Kara's imagination. I'm just pulling your leg." Hiccup's expression was a mixture of relief and embarrassment. "But it's good that you're helping during the raids, not burning down as much of the village as the dragons, I'm proud. It's a good start."

"You're not mad about the whole dragon training thing." 

"No, no. Gobber and I already spoke about it. As long as you're at least learning something it doesn't hurt that you're not in the ring. Besides you already have something to show for it. Kara's quite the ball of energy." At the mention of his new shadow Hiccup groaned. 

"I'm never gonna live that down am I." 

"Relax the village will move on to juicier gossip once dragon training finals near, besides Kara is a good kid. Give her a chance, maybe she'll grow on you. Besides I've invited her father and her over for dinner next week." Stoick couldn't help but laugh at his son's expression. After he recovered from his stunned expression Hiccup proceeded to make an incredibly exaggerated yawn. 

"I should really get to bed." Stoick chuckled Valka used to do the same thing when she wanted out of a conversation. That reminded Stoick. 

"One last thing, take this" He handed Hiccup the helmet next to him "To keep you safe during the raids"

"Wow, thanks"

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it. Its half of her breast plate. Matching set. It keeps her close, you know. Wear it proudly. You deserve it, you stopped a father from morning his daughter. Good night." 

"Thanks, dad. Good night."


	7. Chapter 7

Astrid was determined. In an attempt to raise morale after the disappointing 'attack' on the nest Stoick had announced that the top student of dragon training was going to be picked today. The best two from each class were going to compete in a trail of the chief's design. She'd already scouted the competition. She could win this thing with her hands tied behind her back. 

The six of them lined up in the middle of the arena. There were several low barriers set up all over the ring. 

"Twenty minutes! You will get twenty minutes to prove yourselves to the elder! Best of luck! Time Starts, NOW!!" 

So Gobber was not the only person who subscribed to 'learn on the job' mindset. Astrid was already running for the weapons rack before the echos even stopped bouncing around the arena. Shield and axe. Good she was ready. The Gronkle had charged the other students, scattering the four who were slower than Astrid on the uptake, and it utterly pummeled Snotlout who was so preoccupied with flexing and peacocking for some of the girls in the front row he'd barely heard Stoick's announcement. She had to admit it was difficult to not enjoy that. What followed was fifteen minutes of ducking, diving and waiting for the perfect change to strike. Fortunately Snotlout was such an easy magnet for the dragon's fury that in no time flat it had run out of shots, so it did not take long for Astrid to get her chance, and she used it to her fullest. Slamming her shield into its nose followed by a blow to its wings. It screeched and dropped to the ground. She wasted no time to grab some rope from her belt to tie it down. Fifteen minutes not bad. 

"Wait, wait. Ok quiet down. The elder is decided." Slowly Gobber moved his hand over each of the contestant's heads. The elder declined each of the others. When it came time for her turn the elder gave a gentle nod. 

"You've done it, Astrid! You get to kill the dragon!" The village burst into applause. She cheered with them. She looked out among the crowd. That's weird Hiccup wasn't there. Wait, why should she care whether or not Hiccup was there. She didn't care. No definitely not. Then why was she so disappointed. 

**_Elsewhere_**

Kara was ecstatic Hiccup had asked _her_ to follow _him_ today. She could barely believe it. She was a bit confused though. Why were they walking off into the woods if everyone else was going to the arena to watch the trainees. They soon stopped just on the entrance to a tunnel just barely wide enough to let Hiccup crawl through. 

"Do you trust me?" 

"Of course." no hesitation

"This is serious, I'm about to show you some stuff that may seem crazy, but it's all real."

"I'm serious too. I trust you."

"Ok might as well get this over with. Everything we know about dragons is wrong. They are not just some vicious monster, most seem to have some innate goodness. I can understand if you don't believe me, but you just have to believe me." Kara thought about it for a while. Since her incident she suspected something like that or at the very least that Hiccup alone could bring it out in them. This was not too difficult to believe. 

"Yeah that makes sense. I believe you"

"I know, I know it's crazy bu- Wait did you just say you believe me."

"Yeah."

"Didn't dragons kill your mom, I get it if you have some hesitation, you don't have to pretend I don't blame you."

"They also killed yours, so you must really mean it. I believe you." The look on Hiccup's face was a mixture of shock, awe and relief? Yeah that was joy. 

"Well then I guess there's no reason to delay. It's time you meet my best friend. Follow me."

 ** _Inside to cove_**

He had never had a name. None of his kind did. In the dragon world names weren't very useful. He knew who he was and when he needed others he would just tell them exactly what he needed. After that they would never speak again. This nest was even worse than most. The queen made getting attached difficult. But this human had given him a name, sure it was a bit of a joke, but he thinks he likes it more that way. It's more him, more Toothless. He comprehended the human's speech, many of his kind did. It was useful to know when they spoke about attacks, it was useful to hear where they kept the food, it was useful to know what they were planning. They were so loud, it was easy to listen. But never had one of them talked to one of his kind, and even though he had comprehended the human's words he thinks he's finally starting to **understand**. He was grateful. Sure this human, Hiccup, may have grounded him, but he'd forgiven him. Hiccup had explained to him exactly what had happened, and it was clear that Hiccup felt guilty, and he'd tried everything in his power to help Toothless get back into the sky. So Toothless forgave him, he'd even shared the gift of true flight with the skinny boy. It was clear that Hiccup was never meant for a life on the floor, he took to flying like any true dragon hatchling, instinctively. Toothless was proud, he'd heard tales of other humans taking to the backs of dragons, but in none of those stories did the rider contribute to the flight, none of them truly _flew_ and this human had. 

He then heard a rustling from Hiccups entrance to the cove. 

"Hey bud, there's someone I think you should meet." Oh this was unexpected. Hiccup had not hid that the village was not exactly welcoming of him. Maybe it was the hatchling whose scent clung to him recently. 

"Kara, Toothless. Toothless, Kara." So it had been the little one. He had to say he was quite grateful to her. As much as Hiccup liked to complain that she was annoying, he couldn't hide that fact that he'd grown to care at least a little bit about the only viking on the island who wasn't ashamed to be around him. Even the boy's father tended to keep him at arm's length. 

"Toothless? You really are bad at names."

"Hey! Low blow!" Toothless could not help but laugh at her teasing. 

"I thought you liked it." 

Toothless warbled apologetically. Yes he did like it. This 'Kara' was going to fit right in. He was glad, Hiccup needed support that could speak his own tongue and could help him in the village. 

"He's beautiful." Toothless paused then posed, she also had good taste, she was perfect. 

"Please don't inflate his ego further, he doesn't need it." Killjoy

"What's that on his tail?" 

"Oh that's a long story..." Toothless settled back as Hiccup explained how they'd met. 

Once he finished he turned to Toothless, "Should we take her for a flight?" Toothless didn't see why not. Kara's face however lit up. 

"Really?"

"Yes, come here sit in front of me, and tie this around your waist." Hiccup walked her through what she needed to know. and then they were off. 

The flight had gone smoothly, although Kara was nervous at first she quickly started shouting for joy, it wasn't longer before she started shouting to "go faster" "go higher" in no time whatsoever Toothless was twisting and spinning through the air at a breakneck. She loved all of it, screaming it adrenaline fueled joy. Hiccup for his part went along with it, she was clearly enjoying it. After about half an hour of the most intricate flying Toothless had done since he lost his tail-fin, Hiccup decided to call it saying that they could go again some other time but it was probably best to call it here. Toothless leveled out and they flew around seeing views humans could only dream of. Kara settled into her seat between Hiccup and Toothless. Toothless decided then and there he would die to protect this small human, looking at Hiccup it was clear he agreed. They showed her Berk from on high, they grazed the clouds, the sunset over the ocean, the northern lights. The world was beautiful and they were going to show her all of it. 

"This is so _amazing_ , He's _amazing_ " she was barely hiding the wonder in her voice when she spoke. They sat in awed silence for a few moments. 

Then Toothless heard it. The Call. Oh no. He'd gotten carried away, they were too close. He had to answer The Call. 

"Toothless, what's happening?" Nothing good, Hiccup, nothing good. 

"Whoa, what is it?" The Call dear boy The Call

 _watch it_ Toothless dodged out of the way of a dragon that humans called 'Monstrous Nightmare.'

Soon they were surrounded by others that heeded The Call

"Toothless, you got to get us out of here, bud." I really wish I could but The Call just started, it's far too strong right now.

'It looks like they’re hauling in their kill." 

"Uh ... what does that make us?" Don't worry you're gonna be fine I promise that. They then dived and entered the nest proper. 

"What my dad wouldn't give to find this." best he never finds it, not with what lives here. Having entered the nest and answered The Call, Toothless was able to wrestle control back and find a place to hide, but still see. He trusted Hiccup, Hiccup needed to see this. To understand. If anyone could defeat her, it was the human who could give a dragon their flight back. 

"It's satisfying to know that all our has been dumped down a hole." you'll see soon enough, the food never satisfies her, someone always drifts too close. 

"They're not eating any of it." It's better that way. They then watched a dragon the humans would call a 'Gronkle' fly lazily over the pit. It must have been flying too close when the call was sent out as it clearly did not know the situation it was in. Toothless watched in horror as it dropped a small fish into the pit and then scratched its ear. It probably just thought that it was some custom of the nest to share food, it probably figured 'I'll just drop in something and then leave', which was much better than most in it's situation would do. The low growl foretelling it's doom rang out from within the pit, and before the Gronkle could leave, it was snapped up by the resident of the pit. 

"What is that?" There now you've seen her. I hope you can think of something, Hiccup. Wait why wasn't she returning to the pit? He then saw her nose flex as she smelled the chamber. Oh that was not good. 

"Alright, bud, we gotta get out of here . . . now!" Toothless could not agree more, and The Call had finished, so they bolted. He was fast enough to dodge her. Others weren't. In the frenzy to run at least one other dragon was caught. 

**_one stressful flight home later_**

"No, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers and that's their queen. It controls them. Let's find your dad." 

"No! No." They couldn't take this to his dad. 

"No, not yet. They'll kill Toothless. We have to think this through carefully." 

"Hiccup, we just discovered The Dragons' Nest, the thing we've been after since vikings first sailed here, and you want to keep it a secret? Why? If we take it out there won't be anymore dragon raids, other kids won't have to lose their parents."

"I need to protect Toothless, don't worry we'll take out the queen but not until we have some kind of plan." His mind was already thinking of ways to do it. Thinking all the things he'd learnt about dragons. Well at least one thing made sense now, how could creatures like what he'd learnt dragons to be kill so many people. It made sense now moreover there was a solution, this war could end. He thought back to Astrid's words "You can't just sit on the sidelines and do nothing." Oh boy was he gonna do something he was gonna end their parents war, but before that he needed a plan. 

"So do you have a plan?" He was glad he had Kara, finally he could talk to someone finally he had an ally, an accomplice, maybe even a friend (of the same species). He wasn't alone anymore. But right now she was right he needed a plan. 

"Not quite yet, but now we know what the problem is, we can fix it. It's late, meet me here tomorrow we'll figure something out."

"Ok"

Hiccup had a big night ahead of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toothless' naritive voice was god damn difficult


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A warning for this chapter there is some explicit bloodletting.   
> if that makes you uncomfortable skip from when the nighmare breaks out till "the crowd erupted"

Not only did Hiccup not come and see her beat the other trainees, he didn't even show up for the celebration afterwards. Not even so much as a congratulations. It shouldn't bother her this much but it did godsdamn it. And as if to rub it in he and that girl were suddenly inseparable, if you saw on the other was not far off, and she doubted anyone else noticed this but they tended to disappear at the same times. They seemed to have some weird bond, she'd mentioned once around the twins and they told her that it was freaky how well those two got along. The twins! The twins had said it was weird! That had to mean something. No, she was not reading too deeply into it. 

The silver lining was that Snotlout had been dropped down a couple pegs recently. She had to admit that it was funny how it happened. He'd been picking on Hiccup to show off to some girl when Hiccup's new companion started firing back even harsher taunts. Snotlout used the opportunity to mock Hiccup for not having a ten year old fight his battles for him, at which point the kid just launched herself at his face, striking him with the ferocity on par with that of several dragons. The fact that he'd lost to a ten year old was not a stain that easily washed out. He had also stopped bullying Hiccup when she was around, which was always. 

But that did not change the fact that Hiccup had been acting weird recently. He and the girl would often spend hours muttering to themselves, scribbling things on pieces of paper.   
She'd managed to get hold of one of these papers, she could not make heads or tails of it, the only part that she could understand didn't make sense, something about a queen and an island, but there were no islands with monarchies anywhere near Berk. And when they weren't plotting something they were in the forge making ... something, she'd gone in once after they left, but there was nothing in there. No, she was not being paranoid. This was serious. 

When she brought it up with the chief he just chuckled and said something about siblings, but they weren't siblings. Sure if you didn't know any better they looked the part, but they were not siblings. 

Was she just that he'd ditched her test. Yes. Why? Not important. No, she was not jealous of all the attention Hiccup gave the child. It's not like she missed his barely hidden affection for her. No, that was ridiculous. 

In any event tomorrow was her big day and she was gonna let this obsession with Hiccup ruin it. Obsession? No, more like curiosity. She did not have an obsession with Hiccup. 

_**on the day of the big event** _

"ASTRID!!! ASTRID!!! ASTRID!!! ASTRID!!! ASTRID!!!"

The crowds cheered for her. She loved it. This is what she'd been working for all these years. Staying in peak physical condition, honing her fighting prowess, all those hours had paid off. She was on top of the world. 

"Well, we all knew this day was coming!" Stoick's voice bellowed over the crowd. "If anyone told me that Astrid was not going to place top of dragon training, well I'd have tied him to a mast and shipped them off for fear they'd gone mad! And you know it!" Astrid knew some of it was for show, but it felt good to have the chief, who she greatly admired, acknowledge her. 

"So, here we are. And no one is more deserving or worked harder than Astird has. When I was standing down there in the ring on my day in the sun, I will tell you what my chief said to me, That it was destiny that I would kill the dragon, that the gods had ordained it so. And I love my chief, May he live on in Valhalla!" at this the tribe yelled back at Stoick 

"May he live on in Valhalla!"

"But, my chief did not understand. Destiny did not put me in that ring, I did. The Gods may have given me strength, but I was the one who used it. Trust me when I say, Astrid deserves to be here today. I have watched her, train and I have seen the results. Today, she proves herself. Today, this girl becomes a Viking. Today, she becomes one of us!" the crowd cheered. Astrid could not be happier. 

"It's time, Astrid. Knock 'em dead." Astrid readied herself and stepped into the ring. The crowd was going wild. In front of her stood the rack of weapons. She picked up a shield, always important, and an axe. Usually against a Monstrous Nightmare a hammer was a better pick, but she had been using an axe throughout her training, it felt wrong not to use one here. It would be dishonest to herself. 

"I'm ready." The crowd quieted in anticipation as the weight sealing the cage slowly raised up. 

BOOM!!!

Suddenly the cage burst open. The dragon launched out, covered in flames, the doors to the cage lit ablaze. It rushed around the ring shooting fire at the onlookers before stopping and staring at Astrid. 

"Go on Astrid! Give it to him!"

The dragon inched closer. She met it in stride. Simultaneously the two burst into action. Astrid slashed at its face as it clawed at hers. Barely blocking on time she rolled past landing underneath it, she slashed upwards. Immediately she felt the heat erupt around her. So that's why a hammer was better. Nightmare blood burned hot. Grinding her teeth she leap out from under the dragon, absolutely covered in blood. Fortunately the dragon was much worse off, all the blood currently covering her was supposed to be inside it after all. The dragon then used its ace in the hole. It set itself on fire. 

Now things were really getting started. The two circled each other for what felt like forever. Drawing this fight out was not gonna end well for Astrid she needed to end this soon. Then the dragon rocketed at her. The blood-loss must be getting to it because there was a slight limp on its left side. Checkmate. Astrid ran forward and just before the two collided she ducked to it's left and swung for the neck. The dragon had just put its front limb down and could not defect the strike. The fight was over. 

The crowd erupted. 

As Astrid was paraded around. She looked into the crowds. Her peers' eyes were filled with a wide array of emotions; excitement, jealousy, joy. Her parents looked proud. Stoick's expression could only be described as impressed. Then she saw Hiccup. After last time she had to admit she was kind of surprised to see him here, but his eyes. His eyes were unlike any of the others, they were conflicted tinged with sad and mixed with what she could only guess was disappointment. Next him was the girl. Her eyes were filled with worry and understanding. She gently held Hiccup's hand, clearly trying to comfort him. The scene gave her pause. She knew the two had grown close recently, but right now it looked like two had been siblings for years. What had happened. No. No, she was not going to let Hiccup ruin this for her. This was her moment damn it. 

She let herself be swept away by the crowd enjoying the celebration. When she next thought to look for Hiccup, he was nowhere to be found. Good riddance she thought, but she could not stop herself from looking for him every now and then. Why? At this point she had no idea.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was supposed to be at the end of the last chapter but it was late and I figured there was enough there to justify posting it.  
> So this one might end up being a bit short.

Kara knew that the final exam had been difficult for Hiccup. It's not everyday you see your crush kill that which you love, and then as if to rub salt in the wound everyone celebrates. All she could do was be there for him. It wasn't fair. She truly hated the dragon queen for causing this. Because of her, Hiccup had been ostracized by everyone around him, because of her the dragons and vikings killed each other, because of her Kara had almost died, because of her Toothless had suffered, because of her Hiccup was now suffering. Yes, she hated the queen. 

She and Hiccup sat in the cove together. She and Toothless both carefully comforted him as he now sat crying. None of them said much. 

She and Hiccup had been spending every waking moment preparing to kill the queen. They had a plan, it could even work if they got lucky, they just needed time to prepare. Unfortunately with just the three of them (toothless included) it would still take about two years to be completely ready. They weren't taking chances, but it did mean that the war would go on in the meantime. More innocents were going to die. 

"What are you doing?" Hiccup had taken out a sketchbook and had started drawing. Kara loved his art, he was so talented. Berk only cared about your ability to kill dragons, but Hiccup was so much more, his drawings popped from their pages, his mind could conceive works of true wonder but none of that mattered to the Vikings. 

"I'm not gonna forget his death, I refuse to." He was drawing the Monstrous Nightmare from the arena. If you asked another viking to draw the fight from the arena they would have drawn a vicious horror doused in flames that was brought down low by the bloody Valkyrie. What Hiccup drew was a beautiful, majestic beast, surrounded by an aura of heavenly fire; the focus was on the inherent beauty of the dragon rather than the glory of the slayer. 

They sat in silence admiring as Hiccup worked on the piece. They were likely to do this often over the next couple years. Kara was not looking forward to it. 

**_the next day following a massive party_ **

Astrid was jogging through the Village for her morning jog. Last night had been wild, but she still needed to keep up her routine, given how quiet everything was she was alone in that opinion. As she jogged down the main street she saw the smoke billowing out of the forge. That's weird, last thing she remembered Gobber drank enough last night to kill a small Island. There was no way he was sober enough to be working with molten steel. Hiccup. It had to be Hiccup. She was gonna get some answers. 

"Where were you last night?" She asked as she burst into the workshop. 

"Ah!" Hiccup almost jumped to the ceiling dropping what he was working on. It didn't look like any weapon she'd ever seen, suspicious. 

"Could you not do that? I almost had a heart attack!"

"Don't care, answer the question."

"Why does it matter?"

"I want to know, you also ditched the final trial. Got something better to do that I don't know about?" she motioned at the thing he had dropped.

"Hurt your ego did I?" He chuckled as if at some joke she didn't understand. The nerve. 

"No, but it is a bit unfair to those who actually tried to finish the training that you don't even care about."

"You really want an answer?"

"Yes"

"Well not that I expect you to understand, but it is terrible to be reminded that I am not one of you. That I will never be the son my father wanted. That I am a coward. That I am weak. That I am the first viking in three hundred years who wouldn't kill a dragon."

The anger in his voice took Astrid by surprise. She realized she never tried to see it from his point of view before. She'd only been thinking about herself. Guilt? Was this guilt she was feeling?

"Happy?" If she was being honest no. 

"I guess." 

"Well good, because I do actually have something better to do than patching up your ego and I'd like to get back to it."

Shocked Astrid left the workshop. When had Hiccup grown a spine? Sure, she knew he'd changed a lot since dragon training, but this? Now that she thought about it just the day before dragon training he'd been boasting about how much of a dragon killer he was and that he'd shot down a Night Fury. As she she jogged snippets of memory came back to her; claiming too have shot down a Night fury, the sudden shift in attitude towards being able to kill dragons, weird questions about Night Furies, the strange events in the ring, how Kara claimed she'd been saved, how there hadn't been any Night Fury attacks since they started training. She was sure they were connected. She wasn't sure how just yet, but one thing she was pretty sure about was that Hiccup had not been lying about downing a Night Fury. She had no idea what that meant, but she was done asking questions. After her conversation with Hiccup she was sure she didn't want the answers. No good would come from it. Hiccup had been through enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that we firmly depart cannon. All the setup is done, now we get the juicy bits.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly just exploring the new status quo

_**Stoick** _

The village had fallen into something of a comfortable rhythm. Stoick spent much of his time on his chiefly duties, which he had to admit had become a lot easier since Hiccup had mellowed out a bit and started helping rather than hindering. Speaking of Hiccup, he was pleasantly surprised by the boy. Although he was not in any way like the others his age, he was very helpful. He spent so much time in the forge that Gobber was beginning to complain that he had nothing to do. And when the lad was not in the forge he was out in the woods exploring with Kara. Ah yes Kara, she was a bright light in their household. She and her father almost spent more time at the Haddocks house than their own. Stoick definitely enjoyed the company, and it was good for Hiccup to finally have someone he could talk to. Yes, Kara had become family in all but name, she and Hiccup were as close as any of the other siblings on the Island. This led to a very interesting development. Hiccup was slowly becoming something of a hero to the younger vikings, no doubt due to Kara constantly spouting nothing but praise for him. Hiccup slowly started to spend less and less time with children his own age and more time looking after the youngins, many of the parents were grateful to Hiccup for easing their workload. Soon it was not strange to see Hiccup move through the village swarmed by his new fans. It was good, as the future chief it was important that he have the support of the village, and the children and parents were a very good place to start. 

The raids had not slowed down, and as they continued it was soon clear that some slight changes needed to be made. Firstly the new recruits, especially Astrid, had done an excellent job at easing the strain on the others in the village, as a result they needed less emergency sharpening and repair of weapons, that and the fact that Hiccup spent most of his evenings in the forge working meant that Gobber could man the forge all on his own. This was great but meant that Hiccup had nothing to do during the raids, he was still adamant that he couldn't kill dragons, but he needed to do something. In the end it was Kara who raised the suggestion that he look after the young children whose parents were busy during the raids. The trial run had been a smashing success. 

Things were good on Berk. 

_**Hiccup** _

Hiccup was tired. He was so tired all the damn time. He was so busy. His new routine was exhausting. 

He'd wake up early in the morning, then he and Kara would go to the cove where he'd teach her all about dragons and teach her how to fly Toothless, and if they got time go hunting for her own dragon to train. She was incredibly picky so it may take some time. That could take up to two or three hours. 

Next at around midday he'd return to the village and entertain the younglings for the day. That could take quite a lot out of him, but it was very rewarding. 

After that it was time for super, he'd return home more often than not joined by Arne and Kara as they shared in the meal. 

He'd then go to the forge to work. He'd start with general maintenance finishing everything the village needed sharpened or repaired before starting on the real work. Preparing to kill the queen. This included many things; improvements to Toothless' saddle or tail-fin, explosives to blow open the mountain on Dragon Island, noise machines to scare away the other dragons there and an arsenal of weapons to attack the queen with. After several hours of prep he would whistle for Toothless, after making sure he was alone, and they would cart the supplies back to the cove. 

At this point it was often near midnight. He and Toothless would then share a quick night flight (one or two hours) before dropping him off at home where he would then go to sleep before repeating it all over again. 

During the raids he would break the routine to spend the raid looking after the children. Afterwards he would spend time to survey what had happened during the conflict, he made sure to pay attention to two main things; the names of those who died, and the dragons people boasted about killing. He'd then lock himself in his room and would render them in art, his walls were plastered with images of vikings and dragons he'd been unable to save because he was taking too long to prepare. It gave him energy to keep working when he started to feel the exhaustion kick in. They would not die in vain. He was going to end this war, he just needed more time. 

_**Snotlout** _

It was so frustrating. He was supposed to be the best. He was destined for greatness. So had he achieved nothing yet? At least he was better than that pipsqueak. Any day now Stoick would see that his son was not supposed to be the chief and would announce him, Snotlout, the next heir of Berk. He was perfect, he'd not only finished dragon training but placed in the top six. He'd also get a girlfriend soon. It was just a matter of time, he was the perfect viking, sure he hadn't killed a dragon yet, but it would happen soon. It was only a matter of time. Just you wait, any day now everyone would see him for the perfect viking he was. Who knows he may even finally hook up with Astrid. 

_**Fishlegs** _

Fishlegs prided himself on how well he knew the dragon manual, he could recite the entire thing backwards, only the fifth word on every page, without any e's, you name it. The elder recognized his skill and put him in charge of teaching the younglings everything he could. Which was when he learnt that the book did not have all the answers, like what is a Deadly Nadders favourite color? Why do Gronkles eat rocks? How does a Monstrous Nightmare go to the toilet? Children ask such weird questions, but that wasn't the weirdest part; one of them always had an answer, Kara, Hiccup's little 'sister'. Not only did she answer the question they were so detailed that Fishlegs would have believed her if it weren't for the fact that she had an amazing imagination. He did not care much, none of these questions would impact the kids ability to fight dragons so he didn't see the harm in letting her tell wild stories. That being said he was going to have to work really hard to wipe his mind of the image she had painted of a Nightmare 'relieving itself.' How did she even think of such things? He was going to have to have a talk with Hiccup. 

_**The twins** _

The twins did not mind the new Hiccup. And they definitely did not mind smaller Hiccup. She had the same knack for chaos as them. And they reveled in mentoring her every now and then when Hiccup was busy running errands for Stoick. The twins weren't as blind as the rest of the teens. They saw the work Hiccup was putting into the village. They saw the dependency people had built on the hardworking teens back. They saw the bags under his eyes. They also saw that no one else noticed it, maybe Kara did, and when they spoke to Hiccup it was clear even he did not realize just how much the village silently revolved around him, self degradation and sarcastic jokes about not being missed often left his lips. All this hidden tension in the village was not good. Soon it would snap. The twins would do something about it, but the thought of the village erupting into chaos was a little too exciting to just let pass. It was only a matter of time. They could barely wait. 

_**Astrid** _

Astrid didn't know what to think anymore, she was living her dream, climbing up the ranks of the village's warriors, she was poised to be the youngest lieutenant to the chief in history, but she was not satisfied. What was she missing, what changed? She never felt like this during Dragon Training. What was she doing differently, she had kept up her morning routine, maybe it was the constant adrenaline rush of the ring? In unrelated news, she hadn't spoken to Hiccup in a long time. He always looked busy and overworked, on what she had no idea, she no longer cared. She'd given his last words some thought, he was right. She had been increasingly self motivated, she'd only cared that he dropped out of Dragon Training because she'd staked her identity on it, she'd only blamed him for the weirdness of the ring because it didn't feel like the accomplishments belonged to her, she'd only been mad at him for missing her big moments because she hadn't considered his point of view. She wanted to apologize for her behavior, but again he always looked so busy. "I do actually have something better to do". Besides he probably hated her, she was so everything he could never be; popular, a true viking, influential, a Dragon Killer. Yeah he probably didn't want to talk to her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Setting up for the confrontation with the red death maybe one or two more chapters of set up before the deed. we'll see in the mean time have some awkward Hicctrid stuff

Astrid had been careless. Maybe she was just frustrated. Well not that it mattered now. She sat in the elders hut, as her mangled arm was being bandaged. She'd gotten carried away in the most recent raid, which had resulted in her arm stuck in the jaws of a Nadder. After a long bloody struggle she managed to kill the dragon and free her arm, but the damage had been done. Still, it could have been much worse according to the elder, she could have lost the arm. As it was, the arm was stuck in a sling with several splints to help the bone set, but she was predicted to make a full recovery. She was gonna be stuck that way for just over two months. No heavy working, no fighting. 

It was frustrating, a stupid mistake that could have been avoided. But the worst part was not the pain of the injury, or even the irritation of losing functionality in her arm. No, the worst part was having to deal with the teens for extended periods of time. Usually she only hung out with them when she wasn't training, and to their credit most of them were fine in small doses, but if you had to spend most of the day with all their flaws start to stand out just a little bit too prominently. She didn't really do the social thing, sure she was popular, but that was largely due to being excellent at killing dragons in a world where that was all that mattered, not due to any real effort on her part. To make matters worse the chief had assigned her to help Hiccup when he needed it and during raids. The logic had been that the jobs Hiccup performed often required less physical strength and therefore would not set back her recovery. She wasn't happy about it but it made sense so she didn't complain. Besides he looked so tired these days he could probably use the help, maybe even get some sleep. 

_**the next day** _

She got up early heading to the Chiefs house to start the work for the day. When she knocked on the door she was surprised to see Kara's father open the door. 

"Can I help you?"

"Uh, yes, is Hiccup in? I'm supposed to be helping him out today?"

"No, sorry about that he and Kara left hours ago for their morning walk." Wait. What?! When exactly did Hiccup get up? 

"Oh. When will he be back?"

"Probably just before noon, might be earlier if he had errands to run for Stoick today."

"Maybe I could get started on those?"

"Good idea. STOICK! ARE THERE ANY ERRANDS FOR THIS LASS TO DO!"

"NAH HICCUP FINISHED ALL HIS ERRANDS FOR THE WEEK YESTERDAY!"

"Sorry Stoick says he's already finished for the week." as if she couldn't hear that herself, but wait it was the middle of the week did he finish it all in two days. 

"Ok, then guess I'll just have to wait until noon." she groaned internally, she was going to have to deal with Snotlout again for another couple hours. Oh well nothing she could do about it now. 

_**elsewhere** _

Today had been quite successful. Kara was a natural at flight, even so it took quite some time for her to get used to Toothless' tail, but she was making excellent progress. Even better she'd finally found a dragon that she bonded with. A Changewing she named Bastard, first as a joke it had stolen her lunch while she'd been trying to think of a name, but as Hiccup tried to talk her out of it it was clear that the Changewing loved it, so it stuck. The worst part was that he had no idea his little 'sister' had picked up such a foul tongue, it was probably unavoidable growing up in a viking village would do that, one of the kids he looked after had a father who went by the pseudonym The Great Fuckup. (He sucked at gambling). Although he wasn't happy about the name he had to admit it was fitting Bastard was, well, a bastard. He used his color-changing skin to its full potential, and he was incredibly rebellious like a certain someone he knew. It was a miracle that they convinced him to stay in the cove after they left. 

Upon returning to the village Hiccup was reminded of the one sour spot of today. He'd have to deal with Astrid for quite some time. He was not looking forward to this. He still definitely had a crush on her, that much had not changed, his perspective just did. He did not have time to dwell on childish crushes anymore. He had a war to win. He also could not get the image of her covered in blood killing a dragon out of his head. It haunted his nightmares, someone he admired killing something he'd grown to love, to make matters worse that nightmare was now accompanied by the image of Astrid being flung around inside the mouth of a Nadder. It was horrific. He hated it. 

Yes he was committed to following his father's suggestion for help, he needed an extra hand occasionally, but it was just a bit difficult to be in close proximity to someone who appeared in both your greatest dreams and most terrifying nightmares. besides last time they'd spoken they hadn't exactly left on the best of terms, he'd basically told her to fuck off in all terms except specifically telling her to "fuck off", and it had worked she hadn't spoken to him since, she probably hated him. Oh well. They were stuck together for the time being. 

_**Later, after an incredibly awkward greeting followed by an even more awkward silence** _

Gods they still weren't saying anything. As much as Kara had enjoyed the awkward silence up until now (it was perfect material to tease Hiccup about), it was starting to get really annoying. The other kids her age would soon be here and without some sort of coordination between the two teens this was going to get really difficult really soon. So she kicked Hiccup in the shin. Not hard just enough to really wake him up. 

"What was that for?"

"Look at that more than two words, good, now we might actually be getting somewhere."

"Hey!"

"They're almost here." Hiccup seemed to get her implication. 

"Oh yeah good point. Astrid, we need some kind of plan for today, it would probably be a good idea for the kids to get to know you, but given the ... situation ... with your arm it's probably best to not start with the usual game of 'dog-pile' so..."

And with that the two started to discuss what exactly they were gonna do this afternoon. They just had to keep the kids entertained until Fishlegs' lesson in about two hours. Kara knew it was important for the kids to get to know Astrid before she started helping them during the raids, but she did not like Astrid being here, right now. Astrid was one of the most prolific dragon killers on the island and Kara knew the effect that the two of them had on each other, and Hiccup did not need the distraction at the moment, they were getting close to being ready for their big move, just the last couple bits of prep work and in a couple months they could launch their assault, then this would all be over. Then maybe the two of them could smooth out their relationship a bit, even if Kara didn't like Astrid, it was clear that Hiccup did. She'd support him, but that did not mean she had to like doing it. 

These were going to be an interesting several weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments. It really mean a lot
> 
> :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer than usual wait  
> took a bit of a break  
> in compensation: here have a long ass chapter  
> um swearing and violence defiantly happen as well as pretty explicit references to bullying so yeah

How in Hel did Hiccup do it. She'd only had to deal with the youngins for about two hours, and she was exhausted. Sure she was fit enough to handle running around after kids for almost two hours straight, but she was not ready for the mental strain of having to keep track of about twelve different things happening all at once. At any given time at least three of the buggers were trying to do something that could seriously injure themselves or others, in addition to that it seemed like there was always one trying to run away, and all of that was ignoring the others using Hiccup and herself as either their personal jungle gym or encyclopedia interchangeably. It drained her energy faster than any conceivable exercise. Hiccup for his part absolutely excelled at this line of work, if she didn't know any better she would have thought that he had eyes on the back of his head. He'd tell children to stop doing things seemingly before they even started, often without even looking at them. She'd grown a new respect for anyone who had to deal with these little devils. 

After they handed them off to Fishlegs she almost collapsed. She turned to Hiccup to make some kind of pseudo-sarcastic remark, only to find that he was already heading the other way. 

"Wait hold up. Where are you going?" 

"To the forge best to get started early." He was already getting started on the next job. Did this guy never rest. 

"Ok, I guess that makes sense. Anything I can help with?"

"Not really, most forge work needs two hands, even Gobber attached a prosthetic hand in order to keep using the forge. I guess it would be helpful to have someone around to grab tools for me? If you're up for it? It's how I got started, but it's incredibly boring."

"Sounds good." She might be able to work in her apology that way. 

**_one uncomfortably awkward afternoon with no more than a dozen words each_ **

Talk about disastrous things. She'd barely helped at all, mostly she just got in the way. She didn't know what each of the tools were called, she didn't understand how all the equipment worked. She spent most of her time holding various tools until Hiccup needed them, a glorified tool belt. As a result she had plenty of time to just look around and take in her surroundings. As a whole the forge looked how she expected it to look, the only real difference was all the papers strewn about, Hiccup's no doubt. She'd taken some time to look at one, it looked roughly like what Hiccup was working on but she could not understand any of the specifics, it was french to her. She'd try to ask questions to try to figure out what he was doing or at the very least to try and understand anything going on. When they finally finished she went home for dinner. 

Much, much later she went for her late night jog. Trying a slightly different route she passed by the forge and was surprised to find the furnace still lit. Did they forget to extinguish it? No, Hiccup had definitely remembered. She then heard the unmistakable ringing of metal on metal. Someone was working in the forge, and she had a good idea who. Did he never sleep? How long had he been awake now? Given his early rise it could not have been less than eighteen hours. Gods, no wonder he looked so tired, he never slept. No forge work could be that important, she was gonna get him to go to sleep now.

"Hiccup?"

"Oh?! Hi Astrid, Hi Astrid. I didn't expect you there."

"What could you possibly be working on this late that can’t be done tomorrow, you need sleep."

"This. Needs a few tweaks but should be ready for a test run" with that he sheepishly held up a strange device. it looked not unlike an arm. Wait was what she thought it was. 

"You looked so frustrated at not being able to use your hand, hope this helps. So you hook it around here, and use this bit to move the fingers, and if you move your arm like this it should work just fine." as he explained he was attaching the device to her arm brace. She wasn't really paying attention. He'd built her an arm. _He'd built her an arm, HE"D BUILT HER A FUCKING ARM_. How? She was pretty sure it was magic. Why? Only the gods know. Didn't he hate her, or at the very least dislike her. She then realized Hiccup was pouting ever so slightly. 

"What's wrong?" 

"You hate it don't you."

"What, why would I hate it."

"Well you weren't saying anything, so I just thought tha-"

"NO! No. I mean, no, I don't hate it I'm just surprised is all. It fits like a glove. How'd you get my measurements right?"

"Guess I just have a good eye."

"That's an understatement."

"So you, like it?"

"Yes I like it. Thank you." He beamed at her and her heart skipped a beat. (What was that all about). 

"Guess I owe you one now."

"Don't worry about it."

"And I'm sorry."

"Huh, for what?"

"For how I've been treating you these last couple years, especially during dragon training. It wasn't fair on you."

"Oh, it's perfectly fine, it's not like I'm bothered by it anymore and besides you were far from the worst offender. I'm sorry too for how our last talk went, I wasn't exactly kind with my choice of words."

"No, I think it was exactly what I needed to hear. It gave me a bit of perspective."

"Ok. If you say so."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"uh huh."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"So It's getting late and you need some rest for that arm of yours."

"Yeah, you should also get some sleep, you're still human."

"Unfortunately." He chuckled a little too hard at her joke. 

"See you tomorrow"

"Oh yeah take tomorrow off. You'll need time to get used to the new arm."

"Ok, night"

"Night"

**_time-lapse of Astrid getting used to new hand and Hiccup's routine_ **

Two weeks later they had their first raid since Astrid's accident. At this point she had gotten accustomed to her new 'limb', and had finally gotten at least somewhat familiar with the children's antics. She was however still anxious not being out there dealing with the dragons head on. But overall the evening was going well. The children seemed to trust that Astrid and Hiccup were keeping them safe and for the most part were quite well behaved. They were performing simple tasks to keep them occupied and distracted from the melee outside. It was all going well until one of the girls came up to Astrid to show her her drawing. Which was innocent enough on it's own she'd been inspecting drawings and carvings and 'creations' all evening, but this one surprised her so much that she practically choked on her own saliva, urging Hiccup to come over. Which was the worst possible outcome because the drawing in question was an eerily realistic rendition of Hiccup and Astrid holding hands with a giant heart in the background. 

"Well, your shadings definitely improved." How could he be so calm about this.

"Well, what do you think about it?" 

"I already told you your shadings have gotten a lot better. It looks almost lifelike, the only thing that gave it away was the fictional elements."

"What fictional element? I draw only what I see."

"I'm gonna need to take you to the elder to see if you have the fuzzy eye disease." 

"She's right you know, you two should just get together already." Astrid's face was blood red. 

"It'll never work out, we couldn't be more different, besides I'm sure Astrid would decline my request if I asked, wouldn't you?"

"Huh?! Yes!!" She panicked and just agreed with whatever he said, he was smart, he knows things, he probably knows the right answer here. What was the question again?

"See. Now, you're all making Astrid uncomfortable so no more talk of this."

"Ok _"Maybe you need to get checked for fuzzy eyes"_

"What was that Maddie?"

"Nothing."

"Thought so."

It took Astrid quite a while to completely shake her shell shock from that picture out of her mind. Why did it affect her so much? She did not know. After that evening Hiccup walked her back to her place as it was on the way to the forge (Did he ever rest). She Barely said anything, to be honest eye contact was a bit too much right now. 

"Sorry, about that. Their imaginations can be a bit _overindulgent_ at times."

"Yeah"

"We're probably the only kids our age that they know on any level."

"Yeah"

"Maddie has just hit that phase where all she thinks about is boys. So that's probably where she got the idea from."

"Yeah"

"Thanks for being so chill about the whole thing."

"Yeah"

"Well here's your stop."

"Yeah"

"See you next week"

"Yeah"

Well. That was something. No, she didn't like him. Of course not. Sure he was actually a lot cuter that she remembered him being. Sure when he smiled at her her heart skipped a beat. Sure he was hard working and diligent. Sure he was the chief's son. Sure he made her an arm for no other reason than to be nice. Sure he was great with kids. But he was Hiccup. Wait, why did that matter again? Not important. Yeah she'd just been a bit surprised. This was surprise she was feeling. Nothing more. Yeah

**_several more awkward weeks later_ **

It was the spring festival dance in just a few days and she still hadn't asked anyone to accompany her. She was thinking of asking Hiccup as a way of saying thank you for the arm and because she could at least talk to him for extended periods of time as she did not see herself dancing much (and no not for any other reason). Her options were admittedly limited, of the guys without a date she only really knew four to any degree of familiarity; Snotlout (NO, just no), Tuffnut (He was far more likely to insist on dancing, so no), Fishlegs (he wasn't terrible except he could end up being a bit difficult to maintain long conversations with) and Hiccup. Now just to find hi-

"So, Hiccup you want to go to the spring dance with me?" Astrid froze in her tracks, as she looked up she saw Hiccup seemingly cornered by two other girls roughly their age. What was going on here. 

Mira had had her eye on the scrawny boy for a while, since he started taking care of the kids. In her opinion that immediately catapulted Hiccup from the bottom of the pecking order to Berks most eligible bachelor, great with kids and heir to the chief sign her up. She also knew she was not alone in this school of thought, several of the girls, who at all looked ahead in their life, quickly realized that of the young vikings Hiccup made the short list for actually good husband material, not just fling of the week entertainment. Only problem was that he was borderline impossible to get a hold of, and when it was possible to talk to him that, admittedly adorable, devil at his side seemed to scare away any potential suitors. But she'd finally managed to corner him, and just before the spring dance. How lucky. 

"No." Huh? What? Why? She was definitely attractive and if she was not wrong this was the first time he'd really received any kind of romantic confirmation form someone his age.  
Was he already going with someone? Did she miscalculate and one of her other competitors had already asked him? Or did that oblivious warrior girl finally realize what only her and Hiccup himself hadn't?" 

"Why?"

"I'm not gonna fall for someone's trap again, haven't for two years now and intend to keep it that way. You can tell whoever set you up that I'm going with you and then on the day tell them you already broke the news. They should still get a kick out of it, besides I'm not even going this year I'm taking Kara camping. Best of luck." Mira just stood there stunned as Hiccup pushed past her. Was it really that bad? She knew up until recently that Hiccup had been a bit of the laughing stock of the island, but could it really have been _that_ bad? Evidently. She was going to have to twist the neck of every single guy her age until she got them to apologize. It was sick. How could people do that? She tried to think back to see if she could figure who exactly would do something like that. 

After a moment she realized with growing horror that she'd done it once. It was about five years ago now. The guys had been betting on which girl would be able to get Hiccup to go with them this year (Oh Gods it had been every year) and the girl who did the dead would get half the rewards. And she'd managed it five years ago .She could now recall the tears on Hiccup's face as he'd run crying from the town square. Gods, they were all guilty. How could she have forgotten so easily? Why did they do it? Was it simply because they could? Because everyone else was doing it? Was she a monster?

Astrid still stood around the corner. What were all these emotions? Anger? Jealousy? Guilt? Relief? Horror? It was all an emotional soup swirling around her head. Why had the girl asked Hiccup? Was it all true? Why did she feel all these emotions so strongly? What did it all mean? She was probably just going to skip the dance this year. This was going to take some time to unpack. The only thing she knew for certain was that she did not know Hiccup, or anyone else her age really.

**_Several raids later, right near the end of Astrid's recovery_ **

The current raid seemed a bit loader than usual, Astrid Hoped everything was going well out there. It wasn't long until she could go out and help again. She'd enjoyed these several weeks more than she ever thought she would, but her true calling was always to help in the raids. Three weeks that's all it would take. She was busy checking another drawing by one of the kids, fortunately none of the pieces since that first raid had been even remotely compromising, when she heard a loud crash from above her, just before the whole ceiling fell down around them. 

The next few moments were utter chaos. Screaming children running everywhere, the roar of the dragon above, Hiccup and Kara rounding everyone up and leading them out. Her training kicked in and she reached for her axe only to realize her makeshift arm had been mangled (not again) so she instead started helping Hiccup and Kara funnel the kids out. Once they were all outside they did a headcount. 

One short.

They were one short. 

"Hogsbreath. Astrid, stay here look after them, I'm going in to get him" Without another word Hiccup ran back into the collapsing fiery building. Zero hesitation. She wanted to scream after him, to volunteer herself, to tell him to save himself. But these kids needed her right now. As much as it hurt to watch him plunge into the flames, she needed to be here. 

Moments later Hogsbreath emerged from the wreckage crying. But Hiccup did not. She turned to Kara, looking for some sort of indication that everything was ok. Kara's face was unnaturally calm, like nothing was happening. Kara only mouthed one word.

"Go."

Simple but it was all she needed. She bolted for the building. She scrambled inside just barely not burning to death. Inside she was met by an incredible scene she could never have predicted in thousands of years. 

Hiccup was holding the head of the dragon that fell through the roof, but the beast was not moving. It lay motionless, no movement, its eyes glassy, dead. Hiccup was somehow holding the head of a dead dragon. Looking closer there was not a single wound on the dragon. Hiccup himself was surrounded by flames and debris on all sides. Astrid had to admit that in that moment Hiccup looked positively regal. He looked so natural among the flames, but more than the dead dragon, more than his stunning appearance Astrid was just glad he was alive. 

In that moment she finally admitted to herself; She probably loved him. If not love she at the very least did not know what she would do without him. These last few weeks had truly opened her eyes to the young viking, and she was not willing to close them. 

As she approached however she finally saw his expression. 

It was pure, it was unfiltered, it was burning. 

It was:

**Rage**

**_Later at the cove_ **

"She had just given birth, Kara! She'd been forced to make the long trip right after giving birth, Kara! What kind of a monster does that to a mother! She Collapsed from exhaustion right on top of us because of that bitch! Her children will grow up without having their mother teach them how to fend for themselves! That bitch robbed them of their mother! Why?! She was hungry?! Bullshit! She'd just given birth, Kara!"

Hiccup had been ranting in a loop for close to half an hour. Kara was worried. She'd never seen Hiccup quite like this. It was frightening. He might do something stupid, and she was quite sure she couldn't talk him out of it. 

"I can't wait any longer. I'm leaving at the end of the week. This ends now. No more."

That's it I can't wait anymore! At the end of next week I'm leaving to

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo almost there final chapter of set up left


	13. Chapter 13

Astrid was surprised by Kara when she left her house early one morning. 

"The chief wants to talk to you."

She didn't elaborate. Just turning around and walking back to the chief's house. What was happening Astrid had no idea, but whatever it was it also involved Hiccup. Where Kara involved herself so did Hiccup. As they walked in silence Astrid reflected on Hiccup. 

She hadn't had a chance yet to act on her revelation from a couple days ago. She had a thing for Hiccup. Who'd have thought it. But something was off with Hiccup since the raid. He was barely in the village these days. He spent most of his time in the woods doing something. All she knew was that it involved Kara somehow, as the two would disappear into the woods for hours every day. When he was in the village he walked around with purpose, burning through some sort of unknown checklist. All the while his eyes still burned with that barely contained rage. Astrid had taken care of the kids since the attack, telling them Hiccup was busy. She worried for him, she'd never seen him this angry. Even when he'd snapped at her after training, even when he'd talk about how he'd been bullied, even when someone back-talked Kara. He was furious, but even more frightening was that his rage wasn't the blind hot anger of other vikings, she even suspected most of the village didn't recognize it as anger, no, it was a cold, absolutely driven and directed fury. She didn't even understand what justified such fury, the children were safe, the dragon was dead. She did not understand the object of his rage. Astrid was tempted to ask Kara. It certainly seemed like Kara knew what was going on. Her expression around Hiccup was often one of sadness, tinged with understanding. Astrid almost opened her mouth to ask when their destination came into view. 

Inside Gobber, Stoick, the elder and Hiccup all sat around a table. The mood was serious. Stoick motioned to an empty chair, she could not help but notice it was positioned separate from the others.

"Ah, Astrid, you're here. Let's begin." Stoick said as soon as she took her seat. 

"What's this about? If you don't mind my asking."

"Hiccup and I have been speaking over the last several months on the matter of succession." Oh. That's big. 

"I'm sure you know that I'm next in line for the title of chief. I'm also sure that you know that I'm not exactly well liked by everyone in the village to put it lightly, specifically those our age, Snotlout in particular. In addition there are those both within and outside the tribe who would rather not see me ever rise to chief. These are not the only reasons but the long and short of it is; if I become chief it is not unlikely that there will be a lot of hardship for Berk. A potential civil war, the decline of foreign affairs. This is something that needs to be avoided. I cannot become chief. So then the question becomes who will replace my claim for succession. We need a chief who is not only well liked, but respected both within the tribe and outside it and has a claim to the title in order to avoid a rebellion. The first thought is Snotlout as he has the strongest claim to succession considering he's my cousin. He is also well liked within the tribe, but closer analysis makes it clear he is not the right pick as he is arrogant, easily manipulated and inflexible. -"

"And a bit loose in the head."

Stoick used Gobber's interruption to pick up from Hiccup's speech.

"Thank you for that Gobber but yes, He does not truly understand that being chief is not just barking orders and having people listen. If he becomes chief Berk is in for harder times than the political unrest if Hiccup does because Hiccup understands the role of chief much better than Snotlout."

"So that leaves us with two very unappealing options." Astrid had been following up to this point, she thought that Hiccup would make a great chief but she could definitely see Snotlout arranging a rebellion. 

"So what's the plan, is there anyone else who has a claim on the title?" Hiccup looked at her the ever-present rage in his eyes clearing just slightly. 

"You."

"What?!"

"It's perfect. It's not well known, but finishing first in dragon training gives you a claim to chiefdom. You're respected by those within the tribe, not only the adults but also your peers and young children. You're also no push over and could hold your own against the pressure of the other chieftains. And most importantly you are willing to learn about the more nuanced take of running the tribe, you've been doing some of it since helping Hiccup these last few weeks. There could not be a better pick." 

Astrid was in shock. Her? Chief? What? It didn't make sense sure the words leaving Hiccups mouth all made sense on their own, but together in that order. It was nonsense. 

"Astrid? Are you still with us?"

"Sorry, but you can't be serious."

"Perfectly serious, it has to be you. Hiccup's been insisting on it for almost two months now." He had. Why? Sure he'd told her why, but _Why?_ It didn't make sense didn't he at the very least dislike her for what she reminded him of, sure over the last few weeks they'd gotten along better, but from the sounds of things he'd been trying to get this to happen for some time. It's even possible that Stoick assigned her to help Hiccup during her recovery to test her, it might even have been at Hiccup's request. 

"So do you accept?" She looked at Hiccup, the rage still burning deep down. Was she the object of his rage? It made sense here she was stealing his birthright simply by being more of a viking. She could almost believe it if she hadn't seen his fury dampen when he spoke about her. She would do anything to have him return to normal. To quench his anger. 

"Yes."

"Atta girl."

"Excellent you have until tonight to tell whoever you want to. We shall have a feast to announce it to the village tonight."

"Good luck, congratulations." She couldn't tell if Hiccup was being sarcastic, but he looked relieved as if a weight had been lifted. 

**_one surprisingly uneventful celebration later_ **

Astrid was surprised how well that had gone. Everyone seemed on board. Sure, many people had been surprised, OK almost everyone, but after the initial shock passed nobody objected. Especially after Hiccup himself had given half the speech. Even Snotlout grumbled something about how she wasn't a bad pick. What followed was a party close to the caliber of the one she had after her victory over the monstrous nightmare, which helped to subconsciously remind everyone of that achievement. She almost wondered if it was intentional. All in all a good evening. 

Hiccup spent the next few days not running angrily around the village so that was good. The rage was still there burning just as brightly as before but he seemed calmer. He slept more and rested more often. If she didn't know better he was resting up for some big challenge. Hey, she'd been wrong about Hiccup, maybe he was. She'd ask him next week how he felt about her. It was time for her to confess but for now he needed to rest, maybe he'd wake up and the rage would have left him. 

**_in the cove one week after the raid, late at night_ **

"I'm coming with you."

"No you are not."

"Then you're not going."

"This needs to end."

"What if you die."

"That's already taken care of. Stoick has an heir to the title, the notes on how to build the machines to help kill the queen are in my workshop and you can tell the chief about the queen. That should take care of everything."

"That's not good enough, I can't just let you leave and throw away your life."

"It'll be fine."

"I'll write you letters while I'm away."

"What about you dad?"

"I've left him a note explaining the basics."

"I hate to say this, but what about Astrid?"

"Huh, what about her?"

"She cares about you dumbass!"

"That's ridiculous you've been spending too much time with Maddie."

"Gods you're both idiots, and blind."

"I have to do this Kara, now stop trying to distract me. I can do this. I will do this. Can I count on you to keep things good on this side till I return, it shouldn't be long just until the next raid when she's at her weakest."

Kara kept quiet for some time. 

"OK."

"Thank you."

They embraced one last time.

"I love you you big dummy"

"Love you, too"

Then he took off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait on the big fight  
> next chapter I promise.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one took so long
> 
> Basically both umbrella academy and Pathfinder 2e's advanced player guide both came out around the turn of the month and I've been 'busy'
> 
> Hopefully this is long enough

_Hi Dad_

_So you're probably wondering where I am? I can't tell you._

_You're probably wondering what I'm doing? I also can't really tell you._

_What I can tell you is that I should be done by the end of the next dragon raid._

_-Hiccup_

_**Kara** _

'Explaining the basics' my ass. That letter had basically no information. Hiccup was really bad at making people less worried. At the very least he'd left his notebook with her along with permission to share what she thought relevant with whoever she thought necessary. She had a new mission; spending the next couple days increasing Hiccup's popularity. She knew just where to start. 

_**Fishlegs** _

Hiccup's sudden disappearance had certainly caught Fishlegs by surprise. No one had seen it coming. But what surprised him most was how well Kara was taking it. He'd expected tears at the very least, but she kept calm. It was unnerving, maybe she was distraught, just hiding it well for Stoick's sake, not that he'd admit it. Which is why he wasn't entirely surprised to see her approach him after one of his lessons. 

"How can I help you Kara?"

"Read this." She unceremoniously dropped a small pile of papers on this lap. There were fifteen in total. He looked at her, worried. 

"What is it?"

"Read it." She wasn't gonna let this go. Might as well got this over with. Boulder Class; Gronkle. Huh, they'd been studying Gronkles this lesson. Was this another one of her elaborate theories on dragons. Might as well give it a read, they were often entertaining. 

After a few minutes Fishlegs was staring in shock at the pieces of paper in front of him. He'd only read through about four or so of them and he already felt like he knew everything about Gronckles and there were **eleven more pages**. He flipped through them quickly. They were covered top to bottom and back to front of information about nothing but Gronckles. Not just stats, strengths and weaknesses but diet, sleeping habits, behaviours outside of combat, breeding habits, caregiving, traveling patterns and much much more. He was in awe. This was way too in depth to just be made up, and much of it not only supported what the dragon manual said but explained it or expanded on it. Generations of vikings and these fifteen pages contained more information. Granted not much of it was useful to killing dragons, but still it was impressive. 

"Where did you get these?"

"Hiccup"

"And where did he get them?"

"He made them."

"He made them!?"

"There's more."

"There's more!?"

"Much, much more. That's just the Gronkle."

"Where is the rest?"

"Finish reading that first"

Then she just left. Despite the treasure trove of information in his hands he had so many questions. How did Hiccup know all this? Why did Kara share this with him? Why know? Did it have to do with Hiccup's disappearance?

_**The Twins** _

They never expected Hiccup to just disappear. But looking back on it they should have seen it coming, the clues were there. The most damning piece of evidence was giving his birthright to Astrid. That should have been a red flag, that plus cleverly resolving much of the villages lingering problems over the course of a week. It was unlike Hiccup, usually he'd carefully think through almost every possible outcome before acting and guarantee success, but now he'd taken an 'if it works' mentality. His rapid fire solutions also meant his disappearance did not cause the village to collapse under its own weight. Which was disappointing. It was also another clue that his disappearance was not only intentional, but thought out. One thing that was clear was that Hiccup did not really expect people to notice his disappearance. The twins knew he did not expect it because unlike everything else about his sudden disappearance there was no safety net, in the end the Twins still got their chaotic village. Everyone was running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what had happened. There was no evidence, even fewer leads, what there was in abundance were theories. Everything from he was kidnapped to divine intervention. If Stoick knew anything (The Twins doubted he did) he wasn't telling anyone. Kara definitely knew exactly what was going on, but she definitely was not telling anyone, much to everyone's frustration. Yet another sign that this was intentional. One other thing was clear Hiccup wasn't sure he would return, or at the very least not for a long time. The solutions he'd used were long term fixes, he'd given a clear heir to his claim to chiefdom, Astrid and Gobber were set up to train someone in his forge duties, and most damning he had not taken Kara with him. Whatever he was doing it was possible he would never return. 

_**Gobber** _

Gobber had received his own message from Hiccup on the day of his disappearance. A small book filled with designs for machines and tools. They were detailed and intricate. There was a note explaining that some of the designs could only be read if Kara decided it was time, and those designs were the most frightening. Most of the tools and designs were practical or useful to the village at large, devices for catching rainwater, better boat designs, a firefighting system, genuinely useful inventions, but those written in ciphers, those were machines of war. A sword of some sort, what looked like explosives, a great massive catapult that looked self automated, what Gobber could only assume was a noise maker of some sort. He had been working the forge for many years, he could guess how much metal and time these machines might take, and that worried him more. Hiccup had been spending months in the forge unsupervised, and during which time much of their metal and forge materials had been used up, much more that the visible result of his work, Gobber always assumed he was just messing around, but now with these unreadable plans in hand he started to do the math. And it scared him, given the amount of time and resources Hiccup had been using he would have enough machines of war to be worth a small army of vikings, and if many of them were self running like the diagrams suggested he would be a force to recon with, and he was missing, doing something. Gobber had to report this to his chief. 

_**Mira** _

Mira was absolutely distraught. It took her a long time to come to terms with exactly how terrible everyone her age had been to Hiccup. Even longer for her to comprehend her personal role in the events. And then she finally starts trying to find the time to apologize to Hiccup, maybe try to make it up to him. She'd been brainstorming ways to do it all week but still could not think of any way of trying to apologize that would not sound like some type of cruel prank conceived by one of the other teens. It was like an ironic joke they'd already used every believable excuse as a jumping off point for another terrible prank. And then one day out of the blue he just disappeared. Everyone had their own theories, she spent a lot of her time now defending Hiccup against some of the most heinous accusations, he didn't deserve that, not after what they had done, what she personally had done. Deep down she had her own theory; he'd run away, he was tired of their shit and had just cut his losses and left. If there was any truth to that she wasn't sure she could really live with herself. She remembered the week before he left he often had a look of anger on his face, had someone finally crossed a line? She didn't know. And it horrified her that it was more than likely. 

_**Stoick** _

Stoick had not slept well in some time. His son had vanished with little more than a halfhearted suggestion as to when he would return. What few clues they did have only raised more questions. The notebook full of designs, truly comprehensive knowledge of dragons, the sudden and near complete eradication of Berks major issues around housing, farmland, food storage and fire prevention. And most frustrating of all, Kara. She knew something but would not tell anyone saying that "Hiccup will explain when he comes back". Her faith was admirable but he needed more than faith. He needed to know that Hiccup was alive, and to her credit she did supply it. Letters written in cipher, illegible, but definitely Hiccups. The constant stream of daily letters was all that kept him sane. He spent most of his nights keeping watch almost eager for the next raid. The fateful day. 

Soon it arrived, he spent most of the raid smashing in dragon skulls, venting his frustration, Astrid had not joined him although he knew she wanted to, she was taking care of the youngin's. He was proud, she was acting more like a chief than he was, Hiccup had a good eye. But even that pride was tinged with the reminder that Hiccup was not there, that he had chosen Astrid even a week before he disappeared. Stoick thinks back on it, Hiccup was insistent that they resolve the matter sooner rather than later. It was so obvious in hindsight. Hiccup had set the perfect chain of events so that he could disappear with minimal impact to the village as a whole. 

Suddenly something happened. An earth shattering sound ruptured across the ocean, as if the world itself was breaking apart. If that wasn't strange enough, every single dragon on the island turned as one towards the sound. They then roared and flew off in a panic. Stoick chased them. He could only follow as far as the coast. He was not alone, almost everyone on Berk was here. Watching the ocean and the dragons flew away. Towards Helhiem's Gate. 

They had no idea what they were looking for. Only that they would know it when they saw it. 

For a few moments the silence was deafening. 

The flash of bright blue on the horizon was unexpected, as was the loud screech soon after. What followed a dazzling display of light on the horizon, flashes of blue every several seconds. Not long after the horizon lit up bright red as if the sun was rising, but the position was wrong, as was the shade of red. 

The Gods must be at war. 

The village watched in silent awe as the battle raged on beyond the horizon. 

And suddenly everything was silent once more. 

"I'm gonna need new undies."

Although his choice of words could use some improvement, Gobber was right. Something important had just happened, and Stoick could guess that Hiccup had something to do with it. 

_**Hiccup** _

The battle was all going according to plan. 

1) wait until a raid so there were less dragons at the nest

2) Set off the explosives forcing the queen out and giving other dragons still in the nest a chance to flee

3) Set off the noise makers all around the ocean stacks to disorientate the dragons (remember to apply Toothless' earbuds before doing this.

4) Start the self operating catapults to distract the queen

5) Make her mad

6) aerial combat (lead her away from her familiar territory into slightly more familiar territory (Closer to Berk)

7) blow her up using her own fire gas

It had all gone off without a hitch. 

Right up until this very moment, Toothless was without a tail and they were flying straight at a giant tail club of death. 

So this is how it ends. Could have been worse. The war was ended and all that it cost Berk was one awkward outsider who didn't really belong. 

Hiccup faced his doom as it approached. 

_**Snotlout** _

He may be an idiot but he wasn't stupid. Something had fucking happened. Surely the Gods were angry, but about what? It had to do with Hiccup, he just knew it, but what? He did not know. Nobody did. Except Kara. And her lips seemed sealed. Everyone had asked her, and still she said nothing. He'd even stolen some of Hiccup's papers out of her house, but nobody could read them, never mind explain them. It was all too fishy. Hiccup had always been too fishy, but now the Gods were mad. What were they going to do?  
He did not know. Surely someone would figure something out soon. Yeah, it was only a matter of time then everything would be back to normal. 

_**Kara (again)** _

Kara was worried. It had been two days since the last letter. That was not good. It could only really mean one thing and she was not ready to accept that. She spent almost all her time with Bastard at the usual place waiting for the Terror to come flying back with a letter. Anything, any sign that Hiccup was alive would be welcomed. Anything. She was crying now. Oh great, like this day could get any worse. Just some stupid joke from the universe. Haha, very funny. She told him it was too soon. She told him to wait. Maybe if she tried just a little bit harder he would still be alive. 

The soft flutter of wings caused her to look up. A single Terror flying alone, carrying a letter. She started crying harder now out of joy. It took her several moments to even read the letters on the page.

_I'm alive but stranded on dragon island, bring enough dragons to carry both me and Toothless back_

_Hiccup_

__

She didn't even care that he was terrible at explaining anything **He was alive.** She wasted no time he was coming home today. 

_**Astrid** _

Astrid was absolutely devastated by Hiccup's disappearance. She just knew it was going to end badly. A lot of things suddenly made way too much sense. He had been training a replacement and she had been blind to the whole thing. It was also clear that he had been planning this for a long time, but something still nagged her. His rage, that was new. She suspected that he had not always planned to leave so soon or suddenly, something had happened to insight his fury and he had gone to put an end to it. But she for the life of her could not figure out what it was. 

She and the chief had spent much of the last couple days talking about Hiccup. She'd even gone into his room to see if there were any clues in there. No real clues, but there was definitely something interesting. She had found a collection of art pieces. Most of them were of dragons but some were of vikings. They looked beautiful. In these drawings there was no violence, only beauty and peace. They depicted dragons going about their day or vikings completing some sort of everyday task. As she sorted through them four caught her by surprise. 

The first was unlike any of the others, it seemed the most recent and depicted a six eyed beast snarling at the viewer. It was so unlike the others as she looked at the piece she found herself hating that dragon. Unlike all the others this dragon was drawn to be ugly, to be hated. It reminded her of every single evil thing dragons had ever done. 

The second was drawn fairly recently and it caught her eye because it depicted a dragon caring for its young. She recognized it as the dragon that had crashed into the house where they were looking after the kids. She almost laughed at the irony of the piece. 

The next one was far stranger. It depicted Astrid gently scratching a Nadder under the chin. When she looked closer she realized that it was not just any Nadder but the one that bit into her arm, not only that nut the arm she was using to scratch the Nadder was the very same arm. It was strange. She could not figure out the reasoning behind these pieces

The last one was also the last on the pile so maybe even the first one of this collection. But what captured her interest was that she recognized the dragon, you never quite forget your first. 

She started looking through the pieces trying to find a connection. She noticed pretty quickly that there was no real pattern to the dragons, they seemed almost random. So she turned her attention to the vikings, she recognized most of them. She tried to figure out what connected them, profession? No. Family? No. Rank? No. Age? No. How they’d died? N- wait how did they die? She went through each of them, suddenly the pattern was clear as day. They had all died in raids. Not only that but it was roughly in order of death too. She looked back at the dragons. Maybe they also matched the pattern? Trying her hardest to remember exactly which dragons had died in the most recent three or four raids (according to the people bragging in the main hall after the matter). They all seemed to be accounted for. How many pieces were there? At least two hundred. She also noted with slight satisfaction that most of them depicted dragons, but somehow that too felt strange. Why draw every single dragon and viking that died during the raid? And why depict none of them violently? It didn't really make sense to her. 

She left Hiccup's room and shared her findings with Stoick before heading home for the evening. 

On a whim she decided to take the scenic route around the village. As she passed the woods she noticed two figures hobbling out of the woods. 

Oh Gods he was back. 

Hiccup was back. 

She ran at him at full sprint. 

"Oh, hey Astrid good to see you." She wasn't listening to him as she punched him in the shoulder.

"That's for disappearing!"

"Ow! That hurts!" She could barely hold herself back anymore, she lunged forward and hugged him.

"And this is for coming back." She almost didn't want to let go for fear he'd just vanish again. 

"Thanks Astrid, I mean it but could you let go it's a bit hard to balance in this position, my legs not exactly what it was." She slowly untangled herself from him. She finally took the time to look at him properly.

He was a mess, his hair was burnt, his clothes dirty and torn. And he was smiling. The rage was gone. That was good. 

It was all very good. 

Then she looked down. 

Suddenly his sarcastic joke about his leg made more sense.

His left foot was gone.

_**His left foot was gone** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah im not sure im super jazzed about how this came out but its five in the morn so imma just post it get some sleep and then maybe edit it if I figure out a way to improve upon it. 
> 
> but until then this is not too bad.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry about the colossal gap between updates   
> uni happened  
> but should be trying to update on a semi regular pace (maybe)  
> but thank you so much everyone for reading, your kudos and comments, it really does mean a lot  
> here's a short chapter I've had in a google docs for a while enjoy

The village was in uproar, Astrid had never seen it this lively. 

Immediately after Hiccup's return Astrid and Kara had helped him back to his house, where Stoick had the closest thing she had ever seen to a tearful reunion on Berk. Soon afterwards Hiccup simply collapsed. Stoick panicked and called for the elder, who then gave the unconscious Hiccup a full check up. 

Quite a lot of burns all over his body, many bruises, a fractured rib or two, and a foot that she suspected had been burnt off. Nothing life threatening, but nothing comforting. Where had he got them? Based on the nature of the injuries it seemed he got them from some sort of dragon, but how? When? Which dragon? How was he alive/ Did he kill the dragon? So many questions. 

Upon waking Hiccup was for the most part incredibly frustrating. He refused to talk about where he'd been, what he'd been doing, why he'd done it, if he was gonna do it again. Mostly shrugging it off, promising to explain at some point. Kara took his lead, though it was clear that she definitely knew what had happened. Kara spent most of the 'interrogation' seated at his side gently holding his hand, whether it was to comfort Hiccup or herself Astrid could not tell. 

As they continued questioning Hiccup it was clear he was not going to tell them anything, they gave up and left him to rest. He was being so irritating, it was driving her mad, but she couldn't stay mad. He was alive. **He Was Alive**. Not only that his rage seemed to have dissipated, but that raised more questions than it answered. 

Hiccup's sudden appearance was not exactly quiet news, nor was his mysterious missing foot. It did not help that once he was deemed ready to leave his bed, he seemed to spend every moment hobbling around the village with the help of Kara. He was also still not answering any questions. 

Astrid spent most of her time trying to help Hiccup as much as she could. She often hovered awkwardly around him, trying her best to bring him anything he needed so that he didn't strain himself. When she wasn't doing that she was performing much of his duties as she had been doing for several weeks now. She realized with a bitter irony that she only really knew how to do half of the chores because he had most likely spent months teaching her how to replace him in case he never returned. Hiccup for his part seemed so unlike absolutely everyone around him. Those around him carried themselves with equal parts; worry, sadness, stress and gentleness. They hovered around him as though he would simply disappear again or that he would somehow loose the other foot. Hiccup in contrast shone brightly, he was never not smiling, he laughed, he joked, if he physically could Astrid was sure he would skip everywhere, he simply radiated positivity. It almost made the stress worth it, but when she closed her eyes she still saw Hiccup lying unconscious on the examination table, his torso covered in angry burn wounds, his leg a tapestry of dangerous-looking scar tissue that suddenly ended in a stump rather than a foot, it was horrific. 

**_one quickly improvised peg leg later_ **

Stoick was surprised when Hiccup asked him to gather the council. Hiccup had barely been back three days and was still adjusting to his new metallic limb, a process that Gobber had said would take at least several weeks if not months. But he'd gathered the council, from Hiccup's tone Stoick could tell that it was possibly time for at least some answers, and everyone was desperate for at least some kind of answer, so he made the necessary arrangements. 

Once everyone had arrived (Gobber, Astrid, Stoick, the elder) Hiccup spoke.

"I will show you where I was and what I was doing, we will be leaving next week and it will take almost a full week to go there and back by boat. Any questions?"

"Um, yes what the fuck. You disappear for almost three weeks, with little more than a horrendously unhelpful note as means of goodbye. Then you suddenly just appear again - well most of you - and all you give as an explanation is the vague promise of answers. Lad you can do better than that."

"I promise Gobber, it will be far better to show you rather than verbally explain, trust me on this."


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a second update and a better look at the village post Hiccup reappearance

**_Mira_ **

The first time Mira saw Hiccup after his sudden disappearance she nearly broke down crying. She had heard the rumors, but hearing and seeing were quite different things. Sure she’d heard that he didn’t have a leg anymore, but seeing him hobbling around the village using a stick as a crutch and leaning on Kara really drove the point home. She ran away not able to look any longer. It wasn’t fair he’d been through so much, bullied, beaten, ridiculed by everyone around him, he didn’t need to be crippled as well. And what of his tormentors, they were fine, she was healthy. Mira became utterly wrapped up in guilt, a feeling that only got worse every time she saw Hiccup. She had taken to fervently defending Hiccup amongst her peers, she’d even punched Snotlout for making a cruel joke about cripples once. She hadn’t really spoken to anyone since. 

She needed to talk to Hiccup, she needed to apologise properly. 

But she was too cowardly. 

**_Snotlout_ **

Snotlout was mostly just confused. Nothing made sense. First Hiccup just up and vanishes, next the Gods put on a display of their anger, and then suddenly Hiccup just shows up missing a foot and acting like absolutely nothing happened. It was weird. 

He tried to get him to talk, it shouldn’t be difficult to get a cripple to spill the beans, he couldn’t run. What he did not expect was that the little brat was right around the corner. He still remembered how terrifying she was in a fight (not that he’d ever say it out loud) and quickly retreated. He never got a chance after that, Hiccup and the brat were practically attached at the hip. To make matters worse when he was venting his frustration with his friend some bitch decked him in the nose. He didn’t even see it coming. What was happening. 

He was so confused. 

**_The Twins_ **

The twins were having the absolute time of their life. Sure Hiccup suddenly disappearing had been quite chaos inducing, it was nothing compared to him suddenly appearing again. The village was upturned. There was some new rumor every single day, some new theory, some new gossip. Sure they started half of them but, they usually started _all_ of the rumors and they were never this effective. It was amazing. Did they know what was happening? Hel no, but right now that did not matter. 

**_Gobber_ **

Gobber was worried. Not long after the meeting Hiccup had wobbled into the forge. Refusing to let him go alone Gobber followed. Upon arrival it was clear that Hiccup wanted to fix the rushed prosthetic that Gobber had made. Gobber helped where he could, but it was soon clear that he was out of his depth. Hiccup pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket before spending the next half an hour measuring and remeasuring everything. When he started working the most Stoick could do was to help keep him stable and move around. Time slipped by as Gobber watched the incredible process of Hiccup making a new leg for himself. 

It was unlike any peg leg he had ever seen. Most vikings were happy as long as the fake leg was roughly as long as lost limb, but this was a work of art it was surprisingly light and was capable of having two different ‘feet’ Hiccup referred to the one as a ‘riding’ foot and the other as the ‘walking’ foot. It confused Gobber but he didn’t question it. As soon as Hiccup attached his substitute limb the effect was immediate. Aside from a few initial wobbles he now moved as though he had never even lost his leg in the first place. 

He soon started working on a new project but wouldn’t tell Gobber anything more than he was “being fair”. Having lost his only function as a makeshift wheelchair Gobber left the forge. 

**_Stoick_**

He had given Hiccup his space. Before Hiccup called the meeting he had mostly just asked questions when his curiosity or worry could no longer be contained. He felt like he was walking on eggshells, like if he asked the wrong question or pushed too hard Hiccup would just vanish again, and next time he simply would not come back. 

It was good that Hiccup had made himself a new foot. It was a bit startling at first to see him walking around as if nothing had happened, and although it did help to ease Stoick’s anxiety a little bit, it could not get rid of the memory of his only son lying unresponsive on his table scarred, burnt and missing a limb. 

But the absolutely strangest part was that Hiccup seemed so utterly unburdened for seemingly the first time. Even though under his clothes he looked like a patchwork of burned and unburned flesh and his leg ended in a horrific stump, you would never know it from how he moved. He had so much life to him, so much enthusiasm. He was borderline carefree. It did not take him long to resume his usual schedule (despite absolutely everyone disapproving). As much as he was worried he had to admit he admired how Hiccup absolutely did not let anything stand in his way. 

Finally on the day Hiccup had promised Stoick and Hiccup made their way to the port. The crew for this voyage was smaller than it had any right to be, just a mere nine people (Hiccup, Astrid, Gobber, the Elder, Kara, Snotlout's Astrid’s and Kara’s father’s, and Stoick himself). All the people who absolutely had to know what happened and who could be trusted to keep a secret. He’d left some people in charge of the day to day running of the village as they would be gone for just over a week if Hiccup was right about the distance. 

It was time for answers.


	17. Chapter 17

They had spent the last couple days on the ocean. Stoick could not help but notice that they were headed straight for Helheim’s Gate, with so few people they should have been long dead. Stoick had made this trip many times and every single time the closer they got to the rocky pillars the more frequent and terrifying the attacks from dragons became, never mind once they arrived at the spires. They should be able to see the pillars at any moment yet not one dragon had attacked the ship, that alone would be strange enough, but it was not as if they got lucky and just didn’t see any dragons the whole trip, the dragons ignored their ship entirely. When he pointed it out Hiccup responded.

“They no longer need to”

“What does that even mean?” 

“You’ll know soon enough.”

Great another cryptic answer. 

They soon arrived at the entrance to the everpresent fog that hung over the rock pillars. 

“Now don’t panic and keep your weapons sheathed if you want answers.” Hiccup said before walking to the edge of the boat. Stoick was confused but obliged. Hiccup then proceeded to make an incredibly strange noise from his mouth. If Stoick hadn’t seen it happen he would have doubted that a human mouth could make such an absurd noise. It sounded surprisingly similar to a dragon's call. Not long afterwards a small shape darted out the fog and flew towards the ship. Immediately everyone on the ship tensed up, but fortunately they managed to resist the urge to draw their weapons. Once the small object got closer Stoick was able to recognise the small shape. A terrible terror. As the small dragon rapidly approached the boat Stoick could not help but worry. Sure the dragon was small and alone, but none of them currently had their weapons drawn and Stoick had personally seen what these small dragons could do to those caught unawares. Yet Hiccup still remained calm merely stretching out his right arm towards the reptile. What happened next surprised Stoick more than anything he had ever seen in his life. 

The dragon landed on Hiccup's arm and instead of tearing out his eyes or biting off his fingers, it cooed and nuzzled up to him. Hiccup in turn returned this affection, petting the dragon, rubbing its back and mimicking some of the sounds the dragon made. 

It took Stoick a good few minutes to come back to his senses. He first rubbed his eyes just to make sure they weren’t playing tricks on him. Eventually he looked at everyone else just to see if they were just as shocked as he was. As he suspected everyone was still shocked beyond recovery, their mouths agape and their eyes bulging, All except Kara, who mostly looked smug. 

Hiccup waited until it looked like everyone looked like they were about to start asking questions. 

“Ok, now that we have our navigator, let's get going. Turn into the fog.”

Everyone was still a bit too shocked to register his words. 

“Ahem.”

“Oh, oh, yes, right” Gobber mumbled before running to the wheel and turning it. 

It was deadly quiet on board the boat. Stoick had sailed into the fog many times, and Stoick had been attacked in the fog many times. Just as he was beginning to wonder what exactly Hiccup's plan was, the boy suddenly moved towards the steering wheel and placed the dragon in front of it. He made a low pitched gurgling sound, after which the dragon's eyes dilated and it turned to look straight in front and continued the strange sound. Before long the mist was filled with the same low gurgling sound. It was eerie. Stoick watched Hiccup with the utmost scrutiny. Soon the Terror started to behave strangely turning left or right seemingly at random, and for every turn Hiccup maneuvered the boat to match. Soon they passed a viking ship hanging from a rock spire ninety degrees to the water. 

“That’s not really encouraging.” Astrid’s father mumbled under his breath. Stoick could not agree more. 

“Oh, I was wondering where that went.” Gobber remarked with a dry chuckle 

Not long after that the ship grounded itself on a smooth pebbled beach. 

“We’re here,'' Hiccup announced and jumped off.

Almost Immediately all the strange gurgling and croaking in the fog stopped. If Stoick thought the sound was eerie the sudden lack of it was more so. But even so nothing could prepare him for hiccups next words.

“Welcome to the nest”


	18. Chapter 18

**_Stoick_ **

“Well at least it was the nest, I imagine most of the dragons have left by now. It really is quite safe, feel free to explore for a while. I’ll meet you guys on the other side of the mountain in an hour. I’ll answer any of your questions then.” With that he and Kara made their way across the pebble beach. 

Once again silenced by shock Stoick took a moment to observe his surroundings. 

Around the island the fog seemed thinner which allowed him to see several of the surrounding rock stacks. The island itself was quite interesting. The beach was covered in smooth, black pebbles. In the center of the island there was a massive tall hollowed out mountain. Although he figured it was certainly massive and the giant pit definitely seemed like it had enough space to be a dragon nest, he could not help but feel it made for a poor choice, seeing as it was missing almost half the mountain. How were they supposed to protect against the volatile weather of the archipelago? He next turned his attention to a corner of the beach that looked incredibly out of place. The pebbles here seemed to form a crater of sorts, they were also strangely discoloured from the other pebbles with streaks of pitch black and ashen white and every shade of grey in between. Around the crater and scattered across the beach there were massive weirdly shaped ‘things’. 

Having taken a moment to calm himself with the familiar routine of battlefield surveillance Stoick disembarked. His destination; the crater. Once he was close enough he bent down and picked up one of the discolored pebbles. To his surprise it was covered in a thick layer of soot and ash. Looking closer it was clear that all of the streaks were due to different combinations of white and black ash or soot. Given that it seemed obvious that the crater was caused by some sort of massive explosive impact. Stoick had seen something similar once when he’d managed to knock out a burning Nightmare mid flight, where it had landed looked like a scaled down version of the scene in front of him. 

Next he turned his attention to the weird stuff all around the crater, some were large, some were small, all where charred pure black, some were vaguely squishy, others hard. He spent what felt like an eternity poking and prodding these ‘things’ and one thing was clear; they weren’t rocks. But that was all he could figure out just from looking at them. He took his axe and walked up to the biggest one he had found. It was long, hard, straight and almost twice his height from top to bottom. It did not take long for him to break it open. More accurately it seemed to splinter, like some strange wood. Was it maybe some type of tree? In his youth he’d stumbled upon a forest of petrified trees. Could this be something like that? Maybe. The texture was like halfway between wood and stone, but still strangely familiar. Deciding he’d come back to it later he moved on to another ‘thing’ this one was much smaller but it was the biggest of the squishy variety. He placed it on a rock and swung his axe. As soon as he broke the outer layer the smell of rotten flesh assaulted his senses. Looking at it it was now clear that it was a lump of burnt and rotten meat. Surprised he looked at the sizable pile of similar lumps he’d collected over the last few minutes. Were all of these ‘things’ lumps of flesh. There was almost enough here to feed five to six vikings for a couple weeks at sea. A shame they were all most likely rotten. But where did they come from? Wait. Crater, massive pile of meat, could the two be connected. How? And how do the weird trees fit in? He stopped to think. If he assumed that some giant creature (most likely a dragon) made the giant crater, that would explain the chucks of burned flesh scattered across the beach. 

He cast his mind back to the crater made by the nightmare. It was much, much smaller than this one. Scaling it up had some terrifying implications. He did some quick calculations. If something that big had really made the crater then the amount of meat was way too little even accounting for all the pieces still littering the beach, but that did make sense, a lot of it might burn up, or be flung into the water, or be carried away and eaten. So it unfortunately did not discredit the existence of such a massive monster. Just one thing did not fit yet. The weird tree. Then it hit him. A familiar texture halfway between stone and wood; bone. The weird tree was a bone. He was now sure beyond a shadow of a doubt. Some giant monster had crashed and exploded on this beach. With that new mindset suddenly a lot of things clicked into place. The crater, the meatpile, the tree sized bones, the thunderous roar like sound during the last raid, the second sunset, Hiccup’s mysterious disappearance, his wounds. They painted a clear narrative. As soon as he made the connection he broke into a sprint towards the opposite side of the island. He needed to speak with his son. He had barely rounded the corner when he was immediately frozen in place once more. 

Before him was the single most massive skull he had ever seen. In all his years of killing dragons he had never seen a dragon whose whole body could not fit inside that skull. He soon realised that if this thing had ever attacked Berk, they would all have died, with no hope of survival. 

**_Gobber_ **

Look, Gobber may not know much, but he did know rocks - and some excellent sea shanties but that was neither here nor there - so it was no surprise that he spotted the imposter rocks immediately. All the pebbles were practically uniform and identical, so the other rocks stuck out quickly. He could break them into two categories: those not from this island and those from the mountain. This quickly piqued his interest. So he quickly made his way to the hollowed out mountain. When he got there he could not contain his curiosity. It was abundantly clear that not only had the mountain not always had half its face missing but it had happened recently. The clues were everywhere; jagged unweathered stone shards, scorch marks, a lack of dust and most damning small metal fragments. He was quite sure he just figured out why Hiccup had been making explosives. He turned to face the rock pillars of the fog only to be once again shocked. Each pillar had several self-loading catapults that looked like those from Hiccup’s book. Upon seeing this he solved two mysteries; where the foreign rocks came from as well as where all the catapults were. 

**_Astrid_ **

Astrid soon found the massive skull. The chief sat staring wide eyed at its colossal form, and although it was awe and fear inspiring the first this Astrid noticed was not the size of the skull but rather its six empty sockets. Six eyes. Her mind immediately remembered the drawing of a six eyed monster in Hiccup’s collection. She had been too overwhelmed by Hiccup’s sudden reappearance to try to figure out the meaning behind the collection. But now she had more clues. She’d figured it out. 

The first clue was his sudden change. When he suddenly put all his effort into getting out of the one thing he’d always wanted. Sure it had been weird but most people did not pay much attention to it, but something had happened that one night he claimed to have downed a night fury. She was now absolutely sure he had not been lying, but he most likely hadn’t killed it. “I can’t kill dragons.” A strange claim that he started spouting not long after. Most people (herself included) had chalked it up to him finally realising he was useless in a fight, but what if it was more than that? What if he saw something that made it impossible for him to kill a dragon? What if he learned some great truth?

To back this up there was the next clue; the training ‘accidents’. Whatever happened that night it wasn’t long before he had applied whatever he’d learnt. The Zippleback freaking out, the scented shield, the sleeping dragons, the mysterious lights. She still had no idea how he’d pulled any of it off but one thing was clear; why. In order to test out his new knowledge. And clearly it had been effective. He must have used said new knowledge to save Kara. 

Another mystery solved; Kara. She had most likely been right that the truth of the Kara incident was halfway between Kara’s version and Hiccup’s version. They must have grown close enough for Hiccup to share this new knowledge with her judging from some of Fishleg’s drunken complaints. 

Something must also have happened the night she was celebrating the fact that she had won the right to kill the Monstrous Nightmare. Considering that after that he and Kara started visiting the forge more often, Astrid assumed that it must have then that Hiccup started planning to kill this massive dragon. 

All the other clues didn’t mean anything without the linchpin clue that allowed her to put it all together. It was an off hand comment he made on the boat ride here “they no longer need to.” That was his response to Stoick asking why the dragons weren’t attacking the boat, that paired with how he and Kara interacted with the Terror made it clear that he clearly did not think that dragons were evil and that somehow this giant monster was the reason for the raids. 

And the final clue; his rage. For the longest time Hiccup’s cold fury had vexed her. But she finally figured it out. She had initially thought it was directed at the dragon that crashed through the roof, but seeing as it was long dead at the peak of his anger she dismissed that. For a long time she thought he was mad at her. Why? She could think of a few reasons, but that did not explain the sudden and complete disappearance of his rage once he returned. That left one answer; the colossal monster. 

With that the reasons for the drawings was obvious, they were memorials, an attempt to wash away the terror of this war, to remove the violence, the death, the pain, the loss. All of them except one. The drawing of this massive monster. That one was not a rebellion against terror and bloodshed. All the other paintings were of the already departed, wishing them on towards a better place. That piece was on the living. 

It was a promise. 

A promise that the subject would soon be like the rest. Dead. It was a promise that unlike the rest it would not be in a better place. That even in death it would be hideous. 

And Hiccup had delivered.


	19. Chapter 19

Kara and Hiccup walked around the beach chatting. Finally coming to rest at what seemed to be a makeshift camp. This must have been where he’d stayed while he was stranded on the island. 

When Stoick was finally able to wrench himself away from the massive skull he ran straight to them. He bombarded them with questions. What was that thing? What happened? Did Hiccup really fight it? How? Did it burn off his leg? But Hiccup soon silenced him. 

“Let's wait for the others, it's better to answer everything at once.” Fortunately Stoick quieted down at the promise of answers. 

Eventually everyone arrived at the camp. They were very anxious and could not help but continue to ask questions until Hiccup made a gesture for them to quiet so that he could start. 

“Well to put it very simply. Dragons are really quite nice and peaceful but the queen of the nest was a massive glutton and forced them out to find food or she’d eat them and smash their eggs so they didn’t dare rebel. Just over eighteen months ago I figured out what was happening and made a plan to kill the queen and now she’s dead and the war is over.” 

The idiot. That's too brief. You’re missing basically all the important bits. Kara pouted before turning to the others to apologize for the idiot, but stopped when she saw the looks on the faces of the adults. It was clear that it was too much information for them to process. After a minute of silence everyone suddenly exploded in a mass of questions. 

“Wait, wait, one at a time.”  
.  
“Why didn't you tell anyone?” - Astrid

“Well you just barely believe me now, what about a year and a half ago? And what would you have done, loaded a bunch of vikings on a boat and tried to punch a flying, fire breathing mountain? Sure the people of Berk don’t like me but I don't want them dead.” The last little comment caught Kara by surprise but it was so painfully Hiccup, relentlessly forgiving, kind and deeply self deprecating, it hurt Kara to see that he still did not respect himself. Astrid also visibly flinched from the comment. 

“How did you even find this place?” - Stoick

“Only a dragon can find the nest, funny isn’t it, unless vikings befriended dragons they would never find the nest.”

“How did you even kill such a massive thing?” - Snotlout's father (Spitelout)

“Well that took some time to figure out, first I waited until the raid started so that there would be less dragons in the nest. Next I blew open the mountain to flush out the queen. Then I started the noise makers and catapults to make her mad and frighten any other dragons away. Finally we lead her away and blow her up using her own gas as a fuel. Unfortunately I got a bit impatient with my prep work so not all of me made it out.” He really was an ass, how is he so nonchalant about the whole cripple thing. 

“You just said ‘We’ Kara was in the village the whole time, who was with you?” - Arne

“My best friend” at this everyone froze. It was clear that he had piqued all their attention in a second. Astrid visibly stiffened, oh so she finally figured out her feelings on the matter. 

“And who pray tell is this friend?” - Gobber

“Oh he’s right behind you. Now don’t panic and say hi to Toothless”

Kara could only facepalm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry for the long wait with a short chapter but hell was writers block strong with this one  
> honestly I still think it could be improved but better something than nothing
> 
> Im also currently working on a Gravity Falls: Monster falls fic so look forward to that


End file.
